The Mets arrived in Chicago on Friday afternoon carrying an eight-game losing streak, a slumping lineup and a problem that has gone from ugly to hard to ignore. Kodai Senga was set to start against the Cubs, who came home after a road trip that showed real signs of life at the plate.
New York's slide has been severe. The Mets were swept in three games in Los Angeles before heading to Chicago, scored two runs or fewer in seven of their eight losses and managed only three runs over their last 38 innings. Shohei Ohtani needed just six innings to deepen the wound on Wednesday night, allowing one run on two hits while striking out 10 as the Mets kept losing and kept missing chances. Carlos Mendoza did not dress it up after another defeat. “Guys have got to start playing better,” he said, adding, “It’s as simple as that. They’re too talented. But right now, we’re not seeing anything on the field.”
The numbers behind the skid are bleak enough to explain the mood. The Mets allowed 44 earned runs in 69 innings during the losing streak and carried a 5.74 ERA into Friday. Francisco Lindor was batting.184, Juan Soto had missed the last 11 games with a strained calf and was not expected back until next week at the earliest, and Senga entered the matchup with an 0-2 record and a 7.07 ERA. For a club built to contend, the lineup has been thin, the pitching has been leaking, and there has not been much relief anywhere in sight.
The Cubs, by contrast, returned home having taken two of three from the Phillies and after a Sunday comeback against the Pirates in which they scored seven runs. Their offense also traveled well in Philadelphia, where they put up 28 runs, 41 hits, 13 walks and four home runs. Nico Hoerner was 7 for his last 19 over his last four games, including Sunday against Pittsburgh, Dansby Swanson had homered three times in that stretch and was hitting.385, and Moises Ballesteros was 5 for his last 7. Carson Kelly was 5 for his last 11, while Alex Bregman was 6 for his last 16.
Swanson said the reasons for early-season offense can be layered, and he pointed to conditions as part of it. “There’s a multitude of factors,” he said, adding that April in some parts of the country is weather dependent. Temperatures were climbing in Chicago, and that matters for a Cubs lineup that has already shown it can score in bunches. The contrast is sharp: one team is trying to stop a collapse, the other is trying to keep momentum from a road trip that finally gave its bats room to breathe.
The immediate test is simple. Senga has to steady a rotation spot that has not been steady enough, and the Mets have to show they can do more than hope for Soto's return next week. If they cannot, the conversation around this Mets vs Cubs series will not be about one start or one night in Chicago. It will be about whether New York has already let April slip into something much harder to recover from.