QUEENS — Inheriting a no-out, two-man on jam in the top of the ninth inning while nursing a one-run lead, Mets reliever Phil Bickford bailed out Adam Ottavino to preserve a 4-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night at Citi Field to clinch the team’s first series victory since the trade deadline.
A trade deadline pickup himself from the Dodgers, Bickford was called in to clean up Ottavino’s mess after he gave up a lead-off home run in the ninth to Seiya Suzuki — who recorded three-quarters of the cycle on Wednesday, only missing the double — a single to Jeimer Candelario, who took second on a balk derived from three failed pick-off attempts, and a walk to Mike Tauchman.
Bickford got the first out of the inning through Nick Madrigal’s sacrifice bunt to put the tying run 90 feet away and the go-ahead run in scoring position. But he struck out Christopher Morel looking for the second out.
“I’m just focusing on throwing strikes,” Bickford said. “That was a very important strikeout. I just did everything I could to help the team win.
While he followed it up with a walk to Nico Hoerner on four pitches to load the bases, he bounced right back to strike out Ian Happ to end it and cap off a memorable eight days that saw him move cross-country to help a team simply playing out the remainder of its schedule
“It feels amazing,” Bickford said. “The teammates and staff that are here have made it a lot easier for me. They’ve been very accepting. This week hasn’t been very easy but when you come into an organization like this and everyone helps you out, it makes it that much better and much more enjoyable to play the game that we love.”
With the count 1-2 to Happ, Bickford was milliseconds away from committing a pitch-clock violation that would have drawn the count even to potentially alter the deciding at-bat. But catcher Francisco Alvarez sprinted to the mound to avoid the violation to reset the reliever. On the very next pitch, he got Happ swinging at a 96-mph fastball.
“He’s always on,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said of Alvarez’s sprint.
Bickford was the starring man of a cast that was one of the more unlikely ones to pull out a Mets (52-62) victory. With the game tied at two in the sixth inning, Jeff McNeil’s fifth home run of the season to lead it off followed by an RBI single from Jonathan Arauz that proved to be the game-winner.
Relievers Grant Hartwig, Trevor Gott, and Josh Walker pitched a scoreless 4.1 innings while allowing just a single hit before handing the ball off to Ottavino in the ninth.
Pete Alonso’s two-run home run tied the game in the fourth inning to put the finishing touches on a monstrous individual series in which he hit four home runs with 10 RBI in three games.
Morel gave the Cubs an instantaneous lead when he jumped on Mets starting pitcher David Peterson’s very first pitch of the night, a 91-mph sinker, and deposited it well into the left-field seats.
Chicago would double its lead in the second when Suzuki lined a triple into right-center-field — a ball that Jeff McNeil was unable to cut off with a sliding attempt as it rolled past him and to the wall. Suzuki would score on a passed ball three pitches later after Francisco Alvarez couldn’t reel in a Peterson curveball.
Peterson, who made just his second start since moving back from the bullpen, allowed those two runs on four hits with five strikeouts and a pair of walks. He was limited to just 3.2 innings on 62 pitches after throwing 55 on Friday against the Orioles down in Baltimore.
“A lot of people after that lead-off home run wouldn’t have survived mentally and emotionally,” Showalter said of Peterson. “That’s good fuel for him… Pete not imploding there really gave us a chance.”
Alonso tied it up in the fourth inning with his fourth home run in three games and his 35th of the season, a towering shot into the left-field seats. Had it not been for a Buck Showalter challenge, it would have been a solo shot after Francisco Lindor, who singled, was called out on a pick-off move by umpire Alfonso Marquez. After a lengthy review, however, he was deemed safe just a couple of pitches before Alonso’s blast.
“Winning is way better than losing but it’s great that we’re able to bounce back,” Alonso, who posted 10 RBI with those four homers, said of the series win. “The last three weeks, I’ve been feeling really, really good. I worked really hard to get to the point where I’m at.”
The Mets made a bid in the fifth to take the lead with a two-out rally, loading the bases on two consecutive singles and a walk, but Alonso grounded out.
His teammates picked up the slack for the slugger, who had shouldered most of the offensive load this season, by posting a pair of runs in the sixth. Leading off the sixth inning against reliever Hayden Wesneski, McNeil lined his fifth home run of the season just over the right-center-field fence.
Having hit just three home runs in his first 108 games this season, McNeil now has two in his last five.
Abraham Almonte followed McNeil with a double and after beating out a fielder’s choice attempt on a Mark Vientos groundout, came in to score on Arauz’s single. It drove Wesneski out of the sixth before even recording an out.
