From a breathtaking bid at history to a back-breaking letdown.
The Mets lost a no-hitter, then a lead and then a game in the brutal eighth and ninth innings of a 3-1 defeat to the Cubs at Citi Field on Monday night.
Carlos Mendoza’s group (14-14) has dropped two straight series and opened this one first with tantalizing drama and then, abruptly, disappointment.
A crowd of 25,046 lived by every pitch as Luis Severino’s flirtation with a no-hitter was brought into the eighth inning. Minutes later, Cubs fans’ triumphant chants traveled through an otherwise quiet park.
“It happens quick, and that’s how baseball can go,” Brandon Nimmo said about the swing of emotions. “But to go from a possible no-hitter and winning the ballgame in a very exciting fashion to being down two runs. … It’s tough.”
The no-hit bid and the lead were gone in a dramatic eighth, but the Cubs won the game in the ninth.
Eight brilliant, one-hit, one-soft-run innings from Severino was not enough. The Mets’ only run came on a Nimmo home run — off the fourth pitch from Jameson Taillon, who otherwise shut down the Mets for 7 ¹/₃ innings — and the Mets entrusted Edwin Diaz to protect a tie game.
In the ninth, former Yankee Mike Tauchman doubled. With two outs, Diaz got behind, 3-1, to Christopher Morel, who benefited from a four-seamer that appeared to be in the strike zone but was called a ball.
Diaz, pitching on the second night of a back-to-back and who has not yet been able to reach for his best velocity, threw a 97 mph high fastball.
Morel hammered the go-ahead home run into the left-field seats.
Shortly after a no-hitter was gone, the game was, too.
“I tip my hat to him. He did a great job,” Diaz said of Severino. “That’s on me today.”
Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil walked to bring the potential game-winning run to the plate in the ninth. But Chicago closer Hector Neris struck out DJ Stewart and Brett Baty to escape.
The Mets totaled just four hits and had just two at-bats with runners in scoring position. Their best chance at scoring after the first inning might have been an eighth-inning drive to deep left field from Nimmo, whose fly out came a few feet short of a two-run shot that would have given the Mets’ lead back.
He removed his helmet coming around first base — a rare sight from Nimmo — in frustration.
“I thought I helped us win the game right there,” Nimmo said.
But the game was supposed to be won by the club’s arms, not bats. For most of the game, it felt as if Severino could pull a Johan Santana.
Severino took a no-hitter into the eighth inning and believed he had a chance at something special “from the first pitch of the game,” he said with a laugh, feeling that confident with his stuff.
He was efficient, methodical and more pinpoint than overpowering in recording 21 outs before the Cubs could make a peep.
In the eighth, Severino walked Michael Busch and fell short of history against Dansby Swanson, who sent a broken-bat liner into center for a clean hit that led to a standing ovation for Severino.
With first and second and no out, Matt Mervis hit a sharp ground ball to Alonso, who tried to start a double play that ended with Severino covering first base.
Mervis beat the throw and crashed into Severino’s arm on the way, Severino shaking off the play and returning to the mound.
With one out and runners on the corners, Severino got the result he wished for: Nick Madrigal hit a ground ball to third base, where Joey Wendle had subbed in for defensive purposes.
Wendle could have gone for the out at home but tried for the inning-ending double play, which the Mets did not turn in time because the ball was hit too softly.
Madrigal beat out the fielder’s choice to tie the game at 1-1.
“I initially thought the ball was hit a little bit harder than it was,” said Wendle, who took responsibility and acknowledged the out could have been had at home.
The Cubs first got a hit and then a break.
And then, suddenly, a win.
“It’s frustrating obviously, after an outing like Sevy [had],” Mendoza said. “But got to get ready for tomorrow.”
