Mets Ride deGrom Gem to Top Cubs

METS 6 /CUBS 1

The suddenly resurgent Mets won their fourth in a row in dominant fashion against the World Champion Chicago Cubs at Citi Field on Monday. The win was the latest in a recent string of success for New York as they try to turn their season around in mid-June.

New York waisted little time getting the party started. In the bottom of the second, shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera cracked a solo home run off embattled veteran starter John Lackey to give the Mets a 1-0 lead. Cabrera had a huge night for New York. In the fourth inning, Cabrera hit another solo homer off Lackey to push the Mets to a 4-0 advantage.

Truth be told, Cabrera needed that kind of game -- he has not played well this year, and there has been a call from Mets fans for the team to call up top prospect Amed Rosario. While the Mets don't want to rush Rosario, Cabrera watch has been on for a while. This performance will help cool the temperature a bit.

Speaking of heat, how about Jacob deGrom? deGrom was bringing the heat at the Cubs all night. The right-hander rebounded nicely from rough starts against Milwaukee and Texas to completely shutdown the World Champions. He gave New York its first complete game of the season, holding Chicago to just a run on five hits. deGrom never broke a sweat. He held Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo to a hit a piece, and never allowed Jon Jay and Ben Zobrist touch first base.

It was a dominant effort, an effort the Mets desperately needed considering the plethora of pitching issues this team has faced all season.

With the win, New York is now 8.5 back of Washington for first in the NL East. They are also tied with Cincinnati for fifth place in the wild card race. They are also a half game back of St. Louis. New York needs this series in order to climb the ladder to the Dodgers and D-Backs in the wild card chase.

While the win was important, the Mets did receive a scare on Monday. Yoenis Cespedes, playing in only his second game since coming back from a hamstring injury, left the game against the Cubs with a slight limp. Word is he suffered a sore left heel. There was no word beyond that. The injury will be monitored before tomorrow's game.