FLUSHING, NY – The New York Mets shattered a two-run stalemate with four runs in the eighth inning, rolling to a 6-2, Mother’s Day victory over the Chicago Cubs on Sunday afternoon at Citi Field.
Francisco Lindor catalyzed the offensive surge with a leadoff solo shot in the eighth, crushing reliever Porter Hodges’ 3-1 offering into the home bullpen for his ninth homer of the year. Pete Alonso later added a double, coming around to score on Mark Vientos’ RBI single.
Chicago handed the ball off to Gavin Hollowell, who was welcomed to the game with a two-run blast off the bat of Brandon Nimmo.
“A lot of good at-bats,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said after the game. “It starts with Lindor. Facing a tough righty there, gets in a good hitter’s count, gets a breaking ball… and he hits it out of the ballpark. And then we continue to put together some good at-bats… We’ve got a lot of guys that, when they’re staying short and putting the barrel on baseballs, they can hit the ball out of the ballpark.”
Mets starter Griffin Canning celebrated his 29th birthday with yet another stellar performance. The right-hander cruised through six innings, surrendering just one run, two hits, and a walk with five strikeouts. Canning’s ERA is down to just 2.36 with a 1.26 WHIP through his first eight starts of the year (42.0 innings).
Before blowing out the candles on his cake, Canning blew a fastball by Pete Crow-Armstrong to strike out the leadoff man. The right-hander then fooled Kyle Tucker and Seiya Suzuki with his changeup, fanning the first three Cubs he faced.
Facing a two-strike count with two away in the bottom of the second inning, Starling Marte advanced to first after getting clipped by Matthew Boyd’s inside slider. Luis Torrens followed it up with an RBI triple off the left-center field wall, giving New York an early 1-0 advantage.
After retiring ten batters in a row, Canning finally got caught once the order turned over for a third time in the top of the sixth. Crow-Armstrong, who had struck out in his first two trips, belted a one-out, solo homer to the second deck in right field that knotted the game up at one run apiece.
Torrens exited the game one batter later after taking a foul ball to the groin, and Francisco Alvarez took over behind the dish. Mendoza assured reporters that the backstop was feeling much better after the game.
The Mets fired back in the home half of the sixth. After Juan Soto and Pete went down swinging, Vientos pounced on the first pitch he saw, launching Boyd’s four-seamer into the left field seats for his fifth homer of the year and a 2-1 lead.
New York summoned Reed Garrett from the bullpen in the top of the seventh. The right-handed reliever surrendered a leadoff walk to Michael Busch, who circled back home on an RBI double from Nico Hoerner.
The Mets (26-15, 1st in NL East) took two out of three against the Cubs, and will kick off a three-game set against Paul Skenes and the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday night (7:10 p.m. ET).
