Less than 24 hours after the Mets and Cubs made a trade, the centerpiece of their last major deal issued a reminder of why it aged so poorly for his former team.
On a night when the Mets committed two more errors and a pair of unlikely heroes helped them force extra innings, Pete Crow-Armstrong — the former Mets prospect sent to Chicago in the 2021 Javier Báez deal, who has since blossomed into a star — doubled home the winning run for the Cubs in the 10th off Brooks Raley.
Eric Wagaman, Brett Baty and Carson Benge couldn’t find a way to get Ronny Mauricio home in the bottom of the frame. And it sent the Mets to a 4-3 loss as their losing streak extended to six and everything, as it has all year, continued to spiral.
This time, the Mets found a way to punch back after a pair of errors by Mauricio — or, if the fans at Citi Field had any say in the official scoring, Mark Vientos — and Benge gave the Cubs a three-run lead. Wagaman first stepped into a fastball on the first pitch from Ethan Roberts and sent it over the left field fence and then Jared Young sent a curveball from ex-Met Phil Maton over the right field fence.
The lineup was actually able to fix the mess that the defense made and give the worst team in the National League East, who made the first sign of change Wednesday night when they sent starter David Peterson to Chicago after their doubleheader, a chance. An anomaly emerged instead of the norm.
But until that point, Thursday had started to unfold as the worst type of encore for the Mets one night after they committed six errors in a game. Mauricio one-hopped a throw that Vientos couldn’t scoop, leading to one Cubs run. Benge misplayed a ball off the side wall, allowing it to roll through his legs and bring a second run home.
When it all added up at the end of the frame, Freddy Peralta — cruising to that point — had allowed three unearned runs. After Mauricio’s error, fans at Citi Field brought back the “Pete Alonso” chants from Wednesday.
They blamed Vientos more for allowing Dansby Swanson to reach base than Mauricio, who was starting at shortstop and playing in his first game since May 2. Swanson then advanced to second on a groundout and came around to score when ex-Met Michael Conforto lined a single to right field.
One out later, the Mets defense cratered again. Alex Bregman lined a ball up the right field line, but Benge couldn’t time the bounce off the wall. Conforto scored on the play. Bregman ended up on third, making it easy to score when Ian Happ singled.
The Mets had their chances, though. They loaded the bases in the third inning before Vientos fouled out. Had runners on first and second the next frame, too, with Mauricio’s double keying it all, before Baty grounded out. They loaded the bases again in the sixth after Wagaman’s blast, with Juan Soto grounding out, too.
Peralta recovered from his 10-run outing to cruise through five innings before the defense ruined his final ²/₃ of a frame. He struck out five batters, walked another one and allowed five hits in an outing that, if nothing else, could boost the pending free agent’s trade value when the end of July arrives.
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But just when it seemed like the Mets might quiet the noise — around their manager, around their president of baseball operations, around everyone in the clubhouse associated with this dismal season — for one night, they still found a way to lose. Crow-Armstrong delivered some more misery for his former team. That, more than anything, has been 2026 in a nutshell for them.
