Mets’ 4-3 – The New York Mets dropped a 4-3 decision to the Chicago Cubs on Thursday after a defensive breakdown in the sixth inning, despite striking out 12, allowing six hits, issuing two walks, and hitting two home runs—an unusual mix that OptaSTATS says is the first o
Thursday night didn’t just hurt for the New York Mets—it felt like it had already decided to keep getting worse.
Chicago completed the four-game series sweep with a 4-3 victory, leaving New York stuck in what the season has become: a fast slide toward irrelevance at the halfway mark of the 2026 campaign.
The Mets’ start looked like a team that had finally found something close to control. Their pitching staff gave the Cubs little to work with, allowing only six hits. New York walked two batters and struck out 12 hitters as a unit—numbers that usually come with a comfortable win.
But baseball doesn’t always reward the right-looking parts.
In a game that turned on fielding, the Mets allowed three runs in a disastrous sixth inning. That stretch forced the night into a rare kind of heartbreak: they struck out over 10 batters. allowed no earned runs. and hit two home runs in the same game—and still failed to claim the win. OptaSTATS on X flagged it as the first such combination in MLB history.
The turning point started with Dansby Swanson reaching base on an error by Ronny Mauricio to lead off the sixth. Swanson didn’t just get there—he scored moments later when Michael Conforto drove him in for Chicago’s first unearned run.
Then Carson Benge made it worse with two outs. He failed to field a hit from Alex Bregman cleanly, a mistake that shaped the scoring decision. Conforto ended up scoring due to the error, and Bregman reached third as a result. That was the second unearned run the Mets allowed.
By the time Ian Happ singled on the very next at-bat and Bregman scored after that, the damage was done for New York.
The Mets can’t treat errors like this as the cost of doing business. When the season is already fighting an uphill climb, those are the kinds of mistakes that don’t just swing one inning—they swing the temperature of everything that follows.
New York Mets Chicago Cubs 4-3 2026 season MLB history OptaSTATS sixth inning defensive error Ronny Mauricio Michael Conforto Carson Benge Alex Bregman Ian Happ Dansby Swanson