Mets outlast Cubs in tight series

Series: 9/21 - 9/22 at Shea Stadium in Flushing, NY & 9/23 - 9/24 at Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL

[GAME 1 - Cubs 6, Mets 4 - 15 inn]

Masto Yoshii pitched 10 innings, but wasn't around to figure into the decision when this war of attrition ended in the 15th. Chicago was up 2-0 when the Mets scored 3 in the 6th to take a short lived lead as the Cubs notched 2 off of Yoshii in the 7th. All looked good for the Cubbies until Sean Marshall yielded a blast that sailed into the left center picnic area by Benny Agbayani. As "the apple went up Met fans felt confident they were going to get more. Unfortunately for the hometow faithful the Cub's relievers would shut them out for the next 7 innings. The Cubs scored 2 in the top of the 15th when Derek Lee singled with 2 out off of Dennis Cook and Aramis Ramirez hit a 2 run shot that wound up in nearly the same place as Agbayani's. Kerry Wood came on to pitch a scoreless bottom of the 15th to notch his 5th save of the year. Cub starter Jason Marquis, who is from Staten Island, returned home to pitch

in front of family and friends, but wound up being a spectator himself for the extra frames.

[GAME 2 - Mets 4, Cubs 1]

Matt Franco with a rare start in center hit a 2 run shot off of Cub starter Rich Harden in the second to give the Metsies a 2-0 lead. The Cubs would halve that with a solo run in the 4th as Alfonso Soriano took Met starter Reed (2-1, 3.24) deep to left. Reed would go 7 before yielding to Johnny "Tightrope" Franco and Armando Benitez. Both of whom threw scoreless innings to thwart the Cub effort. New York scored a much needed insurance run in the 7th when pinch hitter Todd Pratt singled home Matt Franco. Benitez notched his 5th save of the campaign.

[GAME 3 - Mets 6, Cubs 5]

Cub fans will call this game, "the one that got away". Down 5-0 to the Mets after 5 innings the Cubbies rallied to tie it and force extra innings. New York's Orel Hershiser gave his team a professional outing and left with a 5-1 lead after 6 innings of work. Allen Watson, Turk Wendell and Johnny Franco conspired to undo Orel's work. Chicago's ace, Ryan Dempster, was more like Ryan Dumpster as he yielded 5 in 5 innings of ineffective work. The Cub pen did a fantastic job holding down the fort until Howry gave up the winning run in the 10th when Edgardo Alfonzo doubled home John Olerud all the way from first. Benitez

came on in the bottom of the inning to notch his 6th save.

[GAME 4 - Mets 6, Cubs 5]

Al Leiter vs Carlos Zambrano and a 15 mph headwind shaped up to promise us a pitcher's duel. We would see nothing of the sort with 10 runs being scored in the contest. The Mets struck first with 1 in the second and 2 in the 3rd to jump out to a 3-0 lead. Alfonzo had a solo shot in the 2nd and Mike Piazza (3 RBI's) singled home 2 in the 3rd. The Cubs tied it up with 1 in the third and 2 in the fourth as Leiter was extremely wild (4 walks and a wild pitch). The top of the 7th would be Zambrano's (1-8, 4.97) final inning of work and also find him entering the short side of the ledger thanks to 2 of his own errors and a Mike Piazza RBI double. Robin Ventura led off the 8th with a solo shot to make it 6-4. By this point Leiter (1-3, 3.72) settled down and mastered his control en route to a complete game victory.