A Tip of the Recap – 6/30 (Mets 4, Cubs 3)

Cubs Record: 51-27

W: Erik Goeddel (1-0)

L: Joel Peralta (1-1)

SV: Jeurys Familia (27)

MVP: Joel Peralta

The Cubs strolled into Citi Field for the first time since last October (this will be the only mention of October). After a sweep of the Reds, they were riding high in pretty much all aspects. The Mets, on the other hand, have been…not. They had just been swept by the Nationals, had lost four straight overall, and were dealing with a lot of injuries. The story of late has been the bone spurs that Steven Matz and Noah Syndergaard are dealing with. Matz met with Mets officials (man that’s a mouthful) and determined that surgery wasn’t something he wanted to do. Face palm. So how did the game go?

Ben Zobrist led off with a base hit and then Kris Bryant stepped to the plate. After going 8-for-14 in Cincy, he decided to show up that bum who wrote the article about him being overrated and took Matz yard to put the Cubs up 2-0.

And then the game slowed down. The Cubs forced Matz’s hand and got him out of the game pretty early. He went 5.1 innings, allowed 7 hits and struck out 6 men while giving up 3 runs. Wait. 3? Oh yeah. Javy happened again. He took a Matz pitch right down the tube 6 or 7 rows back in left field to put the Cubs up 3-0.

So amid these Mets struggles, Yoenis Cespedes has still been really damn good. John Lackey threw a meatball and Yo launched it to the 3rd deck. Th ball went 441 and left the bat 110mph even though it seemed to go at least 569 (nice). Other than that, Lackey was very effective and pitched to a final line of 6.1 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, and 5 K’s.

And that’s when Joel Peralta sucked, er, came in to pitch. Well, sucked too. He couldn’t get an out and gave up a bunch o’ baserunners and the Mets scored them baserunners. By the end of the inning, the Mets were winning 4-3, which is where the game ended. See below for more salt about Joel Peralta. He just can’t pitch anymore.

The Cubs didn’t go away without a fight though. In the top of the 9th, Miggy walked and then Zo hit a double. KB struck out, Rizz got IBB’d and they had bases loaded with one out. And that’s when Jeurys Familia locked it down. Using his 98 MPH sinker, he struck out Willson Contreras and got Baez to pop out. Game over.

The Good:

It looks as if May Ben Zobrist is returning and that is really scary for the Not Cubs. He had two doubles Thursday and some really good patience.

Despite being really overrated due to his susceptibility to good pitches (that’s a real thought a real baseball writer had), Bryant has been really good.

For the first 6 innings, Big Lackey looked really good. He had excellent movement and break with some quality control. And then it was kinda not there. That’s when he was pulled.

The Bad:

The Cubs should have won this game.

Joel Peralta:

He gets his own category for this one. Listen, the baseball season is long and bad stretches happen and bad players appear. However, if a pitcher has proven to be flat and bad and not good and BAD, you would think he should be off the team. Now, I’m not going to say that Joe is wrong and should be fired for this move ’cause they lost the game. That’s stupid. What I am going to say is that Joel Peralta needs to be Not On This Team. He’s 40. He’s got nothing left on any of his pitches. He gives up a lot of home runs. He’s bad. That’s okay. Stuff happens. Good teams have to eat innings with bad pitchers. Minimize the damage and fire him to the sun.

The Ugly:

The top of the 9th. If you asked Cubs Twitter what they learned tonight, it would be that Jeurys Familia is dirty. Throwing a 98 MPH sinker with insane movement is good. That is what good relievers and what good closers are capable of. And Familia did his job tonight. It made for an ugly loss and an ugly half inning. Oh well. Aggravating loss but on to the next one.

Up Next:

The Cubs take on the Mets for game 2 of this 4-game set. Hammel vs DeGrom. Hopefully we see Jason Hammel and not Hason Jammel. Also of note: All-Star voting ended at 11 CT Thursday. Everything is likely still the same, but for now we await the results.