Cubs Beat Mets, Johan Santana
Johan Santana did not honor Hispanic Heritage Night Friday at Citi Field, suffering through his second-shortest outing of the season in a loss to the Cubs. The Mets did make it exciting, but their bid for a second straight ninth inning comeback fell short.
The game got off to an ominous start for Santana– Reed Johnson led off the game for the Cubs with a home run for the 1-0 lead.
Lucas Duda tied things up with a solo shot in the second, his 12th homer of the season, tying him for the team lead.
The Mets took a 2-1 lead in the third when Ruben Tejada walked and Ronny Cedeno doubled him home.
But the lead would not last long as a Chicago sacrifice fly in the fourth tied the game at two.
Santana lost it in the fifth — after allowing two hits, Anthony Rizzo launched a Santana offering over the wall in right to give the Cubs the lead, 5-2. Jeff Baker also homered to make it 6-2. Santana then allowed three more singles to extend the lead to 7-2.
And that was all for Santana. He went just 4.2 innings, allowing the seven runs on 13 hits. Santana did manage to strike out six Cubs and did not walk a batter, so there’s that.
The Mets made it 7-3 in the sixth on a sacrifice fly.
The Cubs added a run in the eighth as did the Mets; Justin Turner’s fourth hit on the night drove in David Wright to make it 8-4.
With one out in the ninth Jordany Valdespin hit a solo homer against struggling Cubs closer Carlos Marmol to make it 8-5. Marmol then walked Tejada, pinch hitter Daniel Murphy and Wright to load the bases. Ike Davis pinch hit for Scott Hairston and hit a liner past the second baseman to drive in two to cut the lead to 8-7. Duda then came to the plate with runners on first and second. He hit a line drive right back to Marmol, who snagged it and doubled Davis off of first. Game over.