Cubs 3 – Mets 0
All-Star second baseman Edgardo Alfonzo returned to the Mets’ lineup last night after 19 days on the DL, supposedly the panacea for their offensive woes. But make no mistake, no one man can cure what ails this team, an overall funk that stunk up Flushing with the smell of defeat.
On a night the Mets welcomed Alfonzo back from the DL and got a brilliant start from Rick Reed, they still found a way to lose. On Fireworks Night, the Mets mustered only duds, getting shut out 3-0 by the Cubs in front of 52,471 irritable fans at Shea.
After a losing road trip, the Mets (36-48) returned home to Shea, where they’ve now lost five in a row. They entered the night 12 games behind Philadelphia in the NL East, and last night Kerry Wood (8-5) threw 6 shutout innings to ensure they wouldn’t make up any ground.
Reed (7-4) had been forced from last Wednesday’s game in Chicago after just 2 innings with lower back spasms, and pitched to a bloated 6.89 ERA in his last three starts. But he threw seven sterling innings last night, giving up just four hits and one run.
The 35-year-old righty walked only two and fanned eight, and made only one mistake – Sammy Sosa’s fourth-inning moonshot – while Wood made none. Or, at least, none the ice-cold Mets could take advantage of.
“You don’t want to think one pitch can cost you a game, but it did,” said Reed. When asked what it was, he said, “A home run.” When asked what variety of pitch, he deadpanned, “Right down the middle.”
The Mets had hoped Alfonzo’s return would spark their floundering lineup. He’d gone on the 15-day DL June 14 with a strained lower back, and the Mets immediately lost three straight, and 11 of 18.
“I felt very good. [Wood] just threw well. His fastball, his curve … he’s just a great pitcher,” said Alfonzo (0-for-3), whose saw his Mets flushed a golden opportunity in the first inning.
After Joe McEwing (3-for-4) and Timo Perez singled, Alfonzo walked to load the bases for Robin Ventura, who’s a .345 hitter with 15 grand slams with the bases juices. But Wood struck him out with a 77-mph curve. Todd Zeile then popped up, and Jay Payton fanned on a full-count pitch.
“It’s frustrating,” Ventura said. “But when a guy’s throwing that good, has his stuff and makes those pitches, you just do the best you can.”
Reed was almost as good. His only gaffe was hanging a pitch to Sosa leading off the fourth inning; Sosa crushed the 0-1 pitch over the picnic area and Pepsi sign in left, an estimated 442 feet.
The Mets left the bases loaded again in the sixth. After McEwing and Perez singled, Zeile drew a two-out walk to load the bases. Payton hit a slicing shot to left that looked like at least two RBIs, but the wind held it and left fielder Todd Dunwoody made a great diving grab.
The Mets would strand two more in the seventh, when pinch-hitters Lenny Harris and Mark Johnson walked, to chase Wood. Kyle Farnsworth came on to pop up McEwing and get Perez to ground out.
The Cubs dumped salt in the Mets’ wounds in the ninth. Reliever Turk Wendell gave up a Sosa double off the left-field wall, and pinch-hitter Ron Coomer took a 2-1 Dennis Cook pitch over the wall for a two-run homer.
“Rick was unbelievable. I feel real bad we couldn’t get him any runs. To lose a game like that is tough,” McEwing said. “That’s why [baseball] is so wonderful at times, and so terrible at times.”
