Mets Edge Cubs 3-2; Lots and Lots of Walks

It was one of those games Friday night that would have had Bob Murphy saying, “Oh those bases on balls.” There were 12 of them and all of the runs scored involved walks as the Mets topped the Cubs at Citi Field.

Zack Wheeler walked opposing pitcher Travis Wood to lead off the third inning. With one out Javier Baez singled, and Wood went from first to third, running on Juan Lagares. Anthony Rizzo grounded out to third to bring home Wood and move Baez to third. Starlin Castro singled to score Baez to give the Cubs a 2-0 lead.

Eric Campbell took care of that with one swing of the bat in the fourth. David Wright and Lucas Duda both walked to lead off the inning. With one out Campbell turned on a pitch from Wood, sending it into the Citi Party Deck to give the Mets the lead, 3-2.

Wheeler made it through 6.2 innings, removed after walking his fourth batter of the night on his 120th pitch. He allowed two runs on four hits and struck out 10. He evened his record at 8-8 to go along with a 3.49 ERA.

WIlmer Flores ran the Mets out of the seventh inning. He and Ruben Tejada both walked to lead off the inning. Curtis Granderson hit a fly out to deep right. For some reason Flores tried to tag up and was easily thrown out at third. Daniel Murphy grounded out to end the inning.

Jenrry Mejia came on for the ninth and nailed down his 18th save as the Mets win 3-2. In addition to the walks there were 21 strikeouts (14 by Mets pitchers) and just eight hits, four for each team.