On Friday afternoon, two teams going in different directions faced off at Wrigley Field.
The Chicago Cubs, who have been struggling, played against the red-hot New York Mets. The Mets dominated early and took a commanding lead with a score of 11-1. They scored 10 runs off Shota Imanaga in just over three innings.
This was the fourth time in nine games that the Mets scored more than 10 runs. J.D. Martinez hit a three-run homer, Francisco Alvarez added a solo shot, and Brandon Nimmo had a two-run homer. For the first time ever, the Mets got their first two runners on base in each of the first four innings .
Imanaga’s ERA jumped from 1.89 to 2.96 after this game. He now has a higher ERA than Yoshinobu Yamamoto (2.92), who had struggled earlier but improved before getting injured.
Game Highlights:
Imanaga was not expected to keep his ERA below 2.00 all season; few pitchers do that anyway. His struggles have mainly come from just two starts: one against the Mets and another where he gave up seven earned runs to the Brewers on May 29th.
Meanwhile, the Mets entered Friday’s game with impressive stats for June: third in batting average (.283), fourth in on-base percentage (.351), and third in slugging percentage (.477). Their recent performance has been stellar, averaging 6.60 runs scored while allowing only 3.67 runs per game over their last 15 games.
Fans might think this is an exciting time for Mets supporters as they are playing their best baseball of the year right now.
Friday’s defeat dropped the Cubs’ record to 19-31 over their last 50 games and overall to 36-40 for the season. On the other hand, with this win, the Mets improved to a record of 12-3 over their last 15 games and are now at 36-38 for the season – close to breaking even since mid-May when they were at .500.
The Mets are just half a game behind securing a wild-card spot in the National League while Cubs are still within reach of postseason play being only one and a half games out.
What do you think about these recent performances?
