This one wasn’t as easy as the other three games in this series appeared to be. It took 10 innings, a double from Pete Crow-Armstrong and some lockdown relief from Trent Thornton — as well as more sketchy Mets defense — to give the Cubs a 4-3 win over the Mets and a sweep of not only the four-game series, but of the entire season series against the Mets. The Cubs outscored the Mets 51-24 over the seven-game season series and now won’t see them again until 2027.
Matthew Boyd, just off the injured list,
and Freddy Peralta matched zeroes over the first five innings, though Boyd got himself in trouble with a few walks, which limited the number of innings he was going to throw. Coming off the IL, Boyd was going to be limited to 75-80 pitches in this one and in fact, was taken out with two out in the fifth at 76 pitches.
Regarding the removal of Boyd, that eventually got the Cubs in trouble. He was taken out with two out in the fifth and Ethan Roberts finished up that inning without incident.
A note on Boyd’s start from BCB’s JohnW53:
Matthew Boyd walked four in his 4.2 innings. He had walked as many as four in only one of his previous 36 starts as a Cub: five, in 5.0 innings, at Milwaukee on July 28 of last year.
He walked at least four in 16 of his 182 MLB starts before joining the Cubs. He walked five twice, both times as a Tiger, in 2016 and 2019.
In the top of the sixth, the Cubs took the lead, and as was the case for the second game of Wednesday’s doubleheader, the Mets got themselves in trouble with defense. Dansby Swanson opened that inning by reaching on an error by Mets shortstop Ronny Mauricio. PCA grounded out, with Swanson taking second.
A single by Michael Conforto scored Swanson [VIDEO].
One out later, Alex Bregman doubled in Conforto [VIDEO].
Bregman took third on a second Mets error and scored on this single by Ian Happ [VIDEO].
All three runs were unearned as a result of the bad Mets defense.
In the bottom of the sixth, here’s where Craig Counsell outsmarted himself. Roberts, who had finished off the fifth for Boyd, got the first two outs in the sixth sandwiched around a walk.
That would have brought up the lefty-batting MJ Melendez to face Roberts. Instead, Counsell countered with Hoby Milner. That prompted Mets manager Carlos Mendoza to send up Eric Wagaman to bat for Melendez.
Personally, I think Roberts vs. Melendez was a better matchup than Milner vs. Wagaman. And I thought that even before Wagaman hit a two-run homer off Milner to cut the Cubs’ lead to 3-2. Sometimes too many moves are… too many moves.
Two more singles off Milner brought Phil Maton into the game and that move did not fill me with confidence. Maton then hit Bo Bichette to load the bases, bringing up Juan Soto. Yikes. But Maton then retired Soto on a ground out to end the inning [VIDEO].
That was good, but in the seventh Maton served up a solo homer to ex-Cub Jared Young to tie the game.
There’s an old line from Lou Boudreau during a WGN radio broadcast from the 1970s that comes to mind here. The Cubs were getting pounded and Vince Lloyd was complaining about the parade of bad relief pitchers and Boudreau chimed in with, “Sometimes, Vince, you gotta use who you’ve got.”
Which is the case here. Maton has been pretty bad all year. He now has a 6.08 ERA and has allowed five home runs in 26.2 innings, after a 2.73 ERA and three home runs in 61.1 innings in 2025. Maton is under contract through 2027. I doubt he’s going anywhere. Lesson: Stop signing relievers who used to pitch for the Astros.
Anyway, okay, the game is tied after seven innings. No one scored in the eighth. In the ninth, the Mets had two runners on with one out off Jacob Webb after a walk and a rare error on Swanson. But Webb got A.J. Ewing to fly to center and Mauricio to ground out to send the game to extras.
Miguel Amaya was scheduled to be the placed runner, so Counsell sent Matt Shaw to run for him.
Swanson struck out, but PCA then doubled, scoring Shaw to make it 4-3 [VIDEO].
That ball wasn’t fair by much, as you can see in the clip. But fair it was, and the Cubs had the lead. PCA did advance to third on a fly to center, but was stranded.
That left it to Thornton to try to keep the Mets off the board. He recorded the first two outs on just five pitches, a line drive to left and ground ball to short. The ground ball moved Mauricio, the Mets’ placed runner, to third.
Thornton got Carson Benge to ground to third to end the game [VIDEO].
For Thornton, it was his first save as a Cub and just the second of his career (also with the Mariners in 2024). The Cubs have been looking for bullpen help wherever they can find it, and Thornton (with one notable exception last weekend vs. the Blue Jays) has been pretty good.
Here’s PCA on his game-winning double and the reaction from fans [VIDEO].
And here are Counsell’s postgame comments [VIDEO].
To wrap this, a couple more game notes from John:
This was the 12th game that the Cubs have won this season after blowing a lead. They have lost 14. They have squandered 35 total leads, doing so twice in nine games, including Game 2 on Wednesday, which they also won.
This is the second season in which the Cubs swept all games vs. the Mets. They also were 7-0 in 2015, when they won four times at home, then three at New York.
The Cubs improved to 13-9 in one-run games with this win, and are now 6-4 in extra innings this year.
I mentioned the dodgy Mets defense earlier. The last nine runs the Cubs scored in this series — the last five in Game 2 Wednesday and all four Thursday — were unearned. One of those was the 10th-inning run Thursday, which by rule is unearned, but still, this is a way to take advantage of a team not playing good defense. It’s exactly the thing that will, I believe, help David Peterson succeed when he makes his Cubs debut, likely sometime this weekend against the Brewers in Milwaukee.
And that’s where the Cubs will begin a three-game series against the NL Central-leading Brewers Friday evening. Colin Rea will start the series opener Friday evening. Jacob Misiorowski will start for Milwaukee. Game time is 6:40 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Apple TV (how to watch).
