Mets 6, Cubs 1: Double (play) trouble

Before I get to my own thoughts on the Cubs’ 6-1 loss to the Mets Monday night, the Cubs official Twitter account probably summed it up best:

That’s pretty much how we’re all feeling right now, right? If the Cubs keep following good offensive performances like Sunday’s with bad ones like Monday’s, we are going to see a .500 season. And I think this team is better than that.

In the early innings, the Cubs kept getting baserunners in scoring position: Anthony Rizzo on a first-inning double, Jason Heyward on a second-inning Mets error, Kris Bryant on a single and a walk to Rizzo in the third.

And then the double-play parade began. Ben Zobrist ended that third inning with a 4-6-3 double play. Willson Contreras did the 4-6-3 in the fourth, Jon Jay in the fifth and Zobrist again in the sixth. It got so bad that Len Kasper even said on the TV broadcast, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

As a result the Cubs left only five men on base despite having five hits and four walks.

Meanwhile, John Lackey was serving up home run balls, three of them, two by Asdrubal Cabrera. That gives Lackey 19 home runs allowed in 75⅓ innings. He allowed 23 home runs last year in 188⅓ innings, so you can see something’s wrong here. Remember when I made the “What year is this, 2006?” comment when Lackey and Bronson Arroyo faced each other earlier this year? Arroyo is the only pitcher who’s allowed more homers this season (22) than Lackey. Another 2006 refugee, Ricky Nolasco, is tied with Lackey.

This is something you see from pitchers at the end of the line, and it appears Lackey’s reaching that end.

These numbers do not include Monday’s game:

Suffice to say the 2017 line in that tweet isn’t any better after Monday’s three-homer barrage by the Mets.

There were two Cubs highlights from this game worth looking at. Addison Russell homered for the second straight game [VIDEO].

For a brief moment it looked like the Cubs might get back in the game, but Felix Pena gave up two run-scoring hits in the eighth to put the game out of reach.

Earlier, Heyward made this spectacular catch [VIDEO].

That ball wouldn’t have cleared the wall, but Heyward did save an extra-base hit. The game was scoreless at the time, and it appeared that maybe that would set the tone. Unfortunately, it didn’t.

Give some credit to the other guy, too, in this one. Jacob deGrom threw really well in finishing the second complete game of his career. In fact, it had been quite some time since any Mets pitcher had finished what he started at home:

Yikes. It would be nice if the Cubs weren’t responsible for things like this.

The inability of the Cubs to win road games is inexplicable. They began this season 8-3 away from Wrigley Field, including series wins at St. Louis and Milwaukee. Since then the Cubs are 3-14 in road games, including nine consecutive defeats in opponents’ parks.

You tell me why that’s happening. I can’t figure it out. And judging by Joe Maddon’s expression in the @Cubs tweet above, he can’t either.

The Cubs will try to end that streak tonight. Jon Lester will go against Zack Wheeler.