'We got burned': Costly errors sink Cubs against Mets

NEW YORK -- The Cubs didn’t play good defense on Tuesday night at Citi Field, and it proved costly in a 4-2 loss to the Mets.

Chicago made two errors in the game, which helped the Mets score all four of their runs. It started in the first inning. After Francisco Lindor singled with one out, it looked like Cubs right hander Javier Assad had picked Lindor off at first base. But during the rundown between first and second, first baseman Patrick Wisdom threw the ball into the outfield, allowing Lindor to go all the way to third base. Lindor came in to score on a sacrifice fly by Pete Alonso.

The Cubs managed to tie the score in the bottom of the second inning, when Miguel Amaya hit a sacrifice fly off Mets left-hander Sean Manaea, scoring Dansby Swanson. But the biggest error of the game came in the sixth inning. At that point, the two clubs were in a pitchers' duel. The score was tied at 1 when Cubs reliever Adbert Alzolay replaced Assad, who pitched five solid innings but picked up his fourth no-decision.

After Alonso popped up to second baseman Nico Hoerner to start the inning, the unthinkable happened. J.D. Martinez hit a grounder to Swanson at shortstop, but Swanson threw the ball past Wisdom for his fourth error of the season. A two-time Gold Glove winner, Swanson didn’t make any excuses for his miscue.

“I just made a bad throw,” he said. “It’s not a good throw. Obvious, it came back to bite us.”

After Jeff McNeil flew out to left fielder Ian Happ,which could have been the third out of the inning, Tyrone Taylor singled to left field. Up next, DJ Stewart clubbed a 0-1 pitch from Alzolay into the right-field upper deck to give New York a 4-1 lead. All the runs charged to Alzolay were unearned because of Swanson’s error.

“There isn’t really a feeling when you hit the ball flush like that. You don’t really feel anything,” Stewart said.

“It’s a play that Dansby makes. It's a play he's got to make and he just didn’t make it,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “We didn’t play good enough defense tonight. We gave them a run in the first. The [Swanson] error contributed to the sixth inning as well. We got burned by not capitalizing on some outs tonight.”

The long ball has been a problem for Alzolay, who surrendered his fifth homer of the season.

“[Alzolay] just made a mistake with the fastball,” Counsell said. “He put a fastball in a bad spot and [Stewart] took a good swing.”

The skipper has to be concerned about the Cubs’ offense. In its last four games, Chicago is 19-for-124 (.153).

“There is not a lot of pressure for sure [on offense],” Counsell said. “There are not enough rallies and it’s led to some quiet nights.”