Mets 17, @Cubs 1: All the Mets’ runs were batted in by just 4 men, distributed 4, 4, 4 and 5. Never before did the Mets have more than 2 players with 4+ RBI in a game, and just once had 4 players with 3+ RBI.
Only 3 prior games by any team since 1918 had 4 players with 4+ RBI: 2007-08-22 (the Texas 30-run Massacre), 1979-05-17 (famous 23-22, 10-inning game in Wrigley), and 1953-08-30 (a game I’d never noticed, with 3 HRs by a player I don’t recall, who hit just 19 career HRs).
No team since last September had even 3 players with 4+ RBI.
The game was tied at 1 after 3 innings. By the 6th, New York had 16 runs, surpassing by 5 their season high, with an Ali Haji-Sheikh line score of 3-6-6 in the 4th through 6th innings.
Daniel Murphy had gone 352 ABs since his last HR (2011-07-16, also a Niese start), a span of 91 full games, not counting games he didn’t bat — then stroked a pair in consecutive innings. During his first AB of the game, Mets TV man Gary Cohen noted the wind blowing out and declared, “This is the day you’d expect Murphy to break that home-run drought.” You’ve gotta love Wrigley!
Murphy had his first 4-RBI game in 364 days. David Wright‘s 5 RBI were a new Mets season high, one shy of his career best, and 2 more than his prior high this year, which he’d achieved just twice. Ike Davis tied his career high of 4 RBI, set 9 days ago on his first grand slam. Scott Hairston fell 1 short of his career best; he had just 1 RBI in his prior 32 ABs.
Jon Niese led off the 5th and 6th with walks, scoring both times. The last Mets pitcher to score twice without a hit was the rookie Dwight Gooden, the last 2 runs in a 5-2 win. (Other Mets: Mickey Lolich, and Jon Matlack twice.) As for the last Mets pitcher to draw 2 walks in a game, Niese himself now owns the last 4 such games. He has 16 career walks in 171 PAs, a BB rate of 9.3% — 2nd-highest among active pitchers with 100+ PAs. (Ian Kennedy has 18 BBs in 170 PAs, 10.6%.)
Jeff Samardzija allowed a career-high 9 runs. In his last 4 starts, he’s yielded 25 ER in 18.1 IP, goosing his ERA from 3.13 to 5.05.
For the Mets:
- Most runs since 2010-09-05 — Coincidentally, that game was also a Wrigley series finale, after losing the first 2 games, the 2nd game by 5-3, with Marmol getting the save; also with Jon Niese starting (2 hits, 2 RBI).
- Biggest victory margin since 1999-08-30. They’ve had just one bigger margin ever, 19-1 on 1964-05-26 — also in Wrigley.
- First 4-HR game since 2011-08-06.
- Third time they’ve scored 17+ with more runs than hits, including their franchise high of 23 runs on 1987-08-16.
For the Cubs:
- Most runs since that 2010 Mets game mentioned above.
- Biggest margin of defeat since 2010-08-02. In that game, Casey Coleman made his MLB debut, allowing 6 runs on 8 hits in 2.1 relief innings; today, career-high 7 runs on 6 hits in 1.2 IP; both times, 2 walks, 1 K.
Anything else?
