This game looked tough due to the Mets young ace Nolan McLean starting. And in fact, it did not start out that way, with the Mets taking a 3-0 fourth-inning lead with two homers off Javier Assad.
But these are the suddenly offensively surging Cubs, and they hit three home runs and won the opener of the split doubleheader against the Mets, 6-3. Dansby Swanson led the home-run barrage with a pair, including a grand slam. It was the Cubs’ eighth win in their last 11 games.
Assad matched McLean with zeroes
over the first three innings, though Assad got himself in trouble with a couple of walks in the second. He got out of that with a double play and then a strikeout of former Cub Jared Young [VIDEO].
The Mets got on the board against Assad in the bottom of the fourth. After a single by Bo Bichette, Young homered, followed by a long ball from Francisco Alvarez to give the Mets a 3-0 lead.
The Cubs, though, did not waste time coming back from that deficit. With two out in the top of the fifth, Pete Crow-Armstrong singled. Michael Conforto doubled him in to make it 3-1 [VIDEO].
The next hitter was Michael Busch, and it took just two pitches for him to go deep and tie the game [VIDEO].
More on Busch’s homer from BCB’s JohnW53:
Michael Busch’s fifth-inning home run was the Cubs’ 93rd of the year but 12th that tied the score.
It was just the fourth of those with a runner on base. Seiya Suzuki and Michael Conforto homered with two aboard, at home vs. the Reds and at the White Sox, respectively. Pete Crow-Armstrong did it with one on at home vs. the Reds. All came between May 4 and 17.
The last four had been with the bases empty.
Busch’s today was his third game-tying shot, matching PCA for the most. Alex Bregman and Ian Happ have hit two. The three-run blasts were the only ones by Conforto and Suzuki.
The Cubs have hit 25 go-ahead homers.
Assad finished five innings, allowing five hits and three runs. Really, the only mistakes he made were the home-run balls.
More on Assad’s outing from John:
Javier Assad’s start was the first by a Cub since 1901 of exactly 5.0 innings in which the pitcher gave up three runs on five hits, walked two and struck out five.
Ferguson Jenkins had two games with all the criteria except the two walks. They came a little more than three months apart, May 20 and Aug 23, 1983, both at home vs. the Reds, and he walked none in both.
Sixteen Cubs had starts with all the criteria but not five strikeouts. The most recent was by Edwin Jackson, at home vs. the Pirates, on June 20, 2014. He struck out eight, most in any of the 16 starts. Chris Volstead, with six on April 9, 2012, vs. the Brewers, was the only other one with more than four.
The Cubs then took the lead in the top of the sixth. With one out, Nico Hoerner doubled (good to see him hitting again!). One out later, Miguel Amaya singled, with Nico stopping at third.
Swanson then smashed this three-run homer [VIDEO].
Ryan Rolison threw a scoreless sixth and Caleb Thielbar, who has scuffled lately, threw a scoreless seventh.
Then Swanson and the Cubs put the game away in the eighth. Ian Happ and Hoerner led off the inning with walks. Pedro Alvarez laid down a successful sac bunt, moving the runners to second and third. Then Miguel Amaya was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Unload those bases, Dansby! [VIDEO]
For Swanson, this was the second seven-RBI game of his career and first as a Cub. More on Swanson’s slam from John:
Dansby Swanson’s grand slam was the fourth of his career and second as a Cub. The first was Aug. 26, 2024, at Pittsburgh.
It was the Cubs’ fourth this season and third in two weeks, after Seiya Suzuki on June 11 at Colorado and Carson Kelly on June 19 at home vs. the Blue Jays.
The Cubs hit five last year. Swanson’s was the last of six in 2024.
They have hit 365 in the regular season since 1876 and 341 since 1901. Swanson’s was No. 155 on the road.
They have been hit by 213 different players.
As noted on the Marquee broadcast, Swanson is the third Cub to have a three-run homer and grand slam in the same game. The others: Kyle Schwarber on July 28, 2019 against the Brewers and Derrek Lee on July 2, 2009, also against the Brewers. Perhaps this is a good sign for the upcoming Brewers series.
Through the game of last Tuesday against the Rockies, Swanson was batting .175/.281/.306. Over his last five games since then: .444/.500/1.222 (8-for-18) with two doubles, four home runs, 14 (!) RBI and just two strikeouts. He’s raised his season BA to .194 and his season OPS to .670 over that five-game span. Here’s hoping that hot streak continues.
Tyler Ferguson, who was called up as the 27th man for the doubleheader, finished up with two scoreless innings.
As you know, the injury to Ben Brown is yet another blow to a starting rotation that’s had almost nothing but injuries this year. They’ll have to scramble to find starting pitchers after Thursday (when Matthew Boyd returns from an IL stint) and Friday (when Colin Rea should go against the Brewers). But if the offense keeps clicking like this… maybe the Cubs can keep winning even while trying to cobble together a rotation.
The Cubs are now five games over .500 for the first time since May 30, meaning they’re 10-10 since then. Not great, but much better than they were in the 20 games previous to that (5-15). Things are trending in the right direction.
The rest of this post contains the particulars for the second game of today’s doubleheader. At the time of this recap lineups were not available for the nightcap, so please check BCB social media for the lineups. Here’s the pitching matchup and other info.
Shōta Imanaga, LHP vs. Sean Manaea, LHP
Shōta Imanaga’s tale of three seasons in one:
Phase 1, first nine starts: 54.1 IP, 2.32 ERA, 0.906 WHIP, 2.82 FIP, five HR
Phase 2: next four starts: 21.2 IP, 10.80 ERA, 1.521 WHIP, 10.16 FIP, 12 HR
Phase 3: next two starts: 10.2 IP, 0.84 ERA, 0.938 WHIP, 2.06 FIP, no HR
So which is the real Imanaga? Yes, the last two starts were against the awful Rockies, but Colorado does have some decent hitters and Shōta got out of Coors Field without allowing a home run.
So, ¯_(ツ)_/¯.
Imanaga’s last start vs. the Mets was Sept. 25, 2025 at Wrigley Field and trust me, you do not want to look at that boxscore link. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Imanaga has pitched against the Mets three times and one of those three was a seven-inning scoreless outing at Citi Field in 2024. Given his career ERA of 10.34 in those three starts, you can guess how awful the other one was.
Hopefully, Imanaga will channel that 2024 start today.
Sean Manaea has been mostly a reliever for the Mets this year until he was moved into the rotation replacing David Peterson, because Peterson had been mostly awful.
Manaea’s two starts have been pretty good — four earned runs in 11.1 innings and only one home run allowed in two games against pretty good hitting teams (Braves and Phillies).
He threw four innings against the Cubs April 17 at Wrigley Field, entering when the Cubs were ahead 7-3. By the time he was done the Cubs led 12-4 and, among other things, he had served up a two-run homer to Ian Happ.
More like that today, please.
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Here is the weather forecast for the area around Citi Field.
Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. It’s also on MLB Network (outside the Cubs and Mets market territories).
Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview for Game 2
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The 2026 game discussion procedure has been changed, so please take note.
You’ll find the game preview, like this one, posted separately on the front page two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).
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