Sloppy Mets fail to gain ground in wild-card race after Jonah Tong clunker against Cubs

CHICAGO — Jonah Tong wasn’t the answer Wednesday night, only underscoring the risk of thrusting an unproven rookie into the pressure cooker of a pennant race. 

But it’s not like the pitching-strapped Mets had any other choice but to roll with the 22-year-old Tong, who recorded all of six outs — an improvement on what the team received from sputtering David Peterson a night earlier. 

But this time the cavalry never arrived to get Tong off the hook, and the Mets got flattened in a 10-3 loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field that potentially muddled the race for the National League’s third wild card. 

The Reds lost 4-3 to the Pirates in 11 innings to remain one game behind the Mets. But the Diamondbacks, who had a later finish against the Dodgers, were in position to move into a tie with the Mets. 

The tiebreaker between the Mets and D’backs (who split the season series) is division record. The D’backs are ahead on that count based on their 25-21 record against the NL West entering the night. The Mets are 24-25 against the NL East. 

The Mets play their series rubber game Thursday night, when de facto ace Nolan McLean is scheduled to face left-hander Shota Imanaga. The rookie McLean has pitched to a 1.27 ERA over his seven major league starts. 

In his second ugly start in his past three, Tong allowed five earned runs on seven hits with two walks and one strikeout over two innings. The right-hander owns a 7.71 ERA in his five starts since his call-up from Triple-A Syracuse on Aug. 29. 

Tong nearly got tagged for a run in the first inning, but after a Mets replay challenge, Michael Busch was ruled out at the plate on Tyrone Taylor’s throw from center field. Busch doubled leading off and Nico Hoerner walked before Busch was thrown out on Moisés Ballesteros’ single. The Cubs did not score in the inning. 

After retiring the side in order in the second, Tong cratered in the third. Matt Shaw and Hoerner each singled — with a walk to Busch sandwiched in between — to load the bases and Ian Happ’s double gave the Cubs a 2-0 lead. Ballesteros singled in another run before Seiya Suzuki ended Tong’s night with an RBI double that placed the Mets in a four-run hole. 

Richard Lovelady entered to retire the next three batters, with a run scoring on Pete Crow-Armstrong’s sacrifice fly that widened the Cubs lead to 5-0. 

Shaw homered leading off the fourth against Lovelady to bury the Mets in a six-run hole. All this occurred before the Mets even got their first hit — Francisco Alvarez’s walk in the third against lefty Matthew Boyd was the team’s only base runner until Mark Vientos singled leading off the fifth. 

Alvarez’s second homer in as many games pulled the Mets to within 6-2 in the fifth. A night earlier, Alvarez blasted a two-run, tiebreaking homer in the eighth inning that served as the margin of victory. 

Vientos’ throwing error on what should have been the final out in the fifth extended the Cubs lead to 7-2. Before the inning was complete, Clay Holmes (who entered following a walk to Ballesteros leading off the frame) bounced a wild pitch and Crow-Armstrong raced two bases to score from second. Holmes was late in covering the plate after Alvarez was slow in retrieving the pitch to the backstop. 

Sean Manaea pitched the sixth and surrendered a two-run homer to Busch that buried the Mets in a 10-2 hole. Shaw singled for his third hit of the game before Busch cleared the right field ivy — the latest letdown by Manaea, who struggled in his start against the Nationals on Sunday. 

In the eighth, Juan Soto blasted homer No. 43 this season to give the Mets their third run.