Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial first mile marker of the baseball season, is still two weeks away.
But it’s not too early to wonder if the New York Mets and Chicago Cubs will be offering a playoff preview Friday night, when New York hosts Chicago in the opener of a three-game series between a pair of National League division leaders.
Clay Holmes (4-1, 2.95 ERA) is slated to start for the Mets against Jameson Taillon (2-1, 3.86) in a battle of right-handers.
Both teams were off Thursday after completing a three-game series against NL West foes Wednesday. Juan Soto hit a pair of homers to lead the visiting Mets past the Arizona Diamondbacks, 7-1, in the rubber game of their set. The host Cubs suffered their second straight defeat with a 3-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants.
The win over the Diamondbacks snapped the first skid of the season for the Mets, who dropped consecutive series against Arizona and the St. Louis Cardinals — their first back-to-back series losses since last August, when New York lost five of six against the Seattle Mariners and the then-Oakland Athletics.
Soto’s second two-homer game of the season provided evidence he’s emerging from a slow first few weeks. The superstar right fielder enters Friday with an .863 OPS, well below his career mark of .950.
But the Mets, who entered Thursday with a two-game lead over the second-place Philadelphia Phillies, were particularly encouraged by their play before Soto’s first blast snapped a scoreless tie in the sixth inning.
New York starter Kodai Senga tossed six scoreless innings and worked out of a jam in the third when he issued leadoff walks to Jose Herrera and Corbin Carroll. Following a visit from pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, Senga got Geraldo Perdomo to pop out on a bunt attempt before retiring Pavin Smith on a 4-6-3 double play.
The Mets made their most impressive plays behind Senga in the second, when center fielder Tyrone Taylor, shortstop Francisco Lindor and catcher Luis Torrens connected on a perfect set of relays to throw out Eugenio Suarez trying to score on Alek Thomas’ double.
“Those are winning plays,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said.
A rare series loss was accompanied by some frustrating circumstances for the Cubs, who entered Thursday with a three-game lead in the NL Central. Chicago, which has scored a major league-best 223 runs, was 8-2-1 in series play since opening the season with back-to-back losses to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Japan.
After winning Monday’s opener 9-2 over San Francisco, Chicago overcame a two-run ninth-inning deficit Tuesday and left runners at second and third in the 10th inning before falling 14-5 in 11 innings. Closer Ryan Pressly (2-2) failed to retire any of the eight batters he faced in the 11th for the Cubs, whose nine-run defeat was the most lopsided extra-inning loss in franchise history.
On Wednesday, the Cubs collected just four hits but sent the tying run to the plate in the fourth, seventh and ninth innings.
“Obviously, (Tuesday) night was a challenging loss, but there were also a lot of really great things within it and we were moments away from winning that game,” Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner said. “And then (Wednesday), just never got the bats rolling.”
Holmes earned the win in his previous start May 2, when he gave up three runs over six innings as the Mets beat the Cardinals, 9-3. Taillon recorded the win last Saturday after surrendering two runs over six innings as the Cubs defeated the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-2.
Holmes is 1-0 with a 3.80 ERA in 17 career relief appearances against the Cubs. Taillon is 4-0 with a 1.96 ERA in six starts against the Mets.
–Field Level Media
