And the Cubs moved into first place in the NL Central.
Christopher Morel hadn’t homered in almost three weeks, and overall his hitting hadn’t been as good as it was in 2023.
Morel picked an excellent time to break that home-run drought. His no-doubter two-run blast into the left-field seats at Citi Field broke a 1-1 tie and led the Cubs to a 3-1 win over the Mets in the opener of a four-game series. Combined with the Brewers’ 1-0 loss to the Rays in Milwaukee, the Cubs moved into first place in the NL Central by half a game. Sure, it’s April, but first place is first place.
For a time, it looked like the Cubs might even be no-hit. Luis Severino breezed through the first seven innings allowing just two baserunners, a walk to Ian Happ in the fourth and Mike Tauchman hit by a pitch in the seventh.
But Jameson Taillon nearly matched Severino. After Brandon Nimmo led off the bottom of the first inning with a home run, Taillon allowed just three other hits and a walk and pitched into the eighth inning, becoming the first Cubs starter to throw a pitch in that inning this year. It was the third straight outstanding outing from Taillon, who has looked even a bit better than the guy we saw in the second half of 2023.
The Cubs broke up Severino’s no-hitter and tied the game in the top of the eighth. Michael Busch led off with a walk.
Dansby Swanson followed with this little floater into center field [VIDEO].
That kept this since-2015 streak going:
No. 1,290: Dansby Swanson singles with no outs in the EIGHTH for the @Cubs.
Only 6,630 to go!
— Cubs No-Hit Streak Bot (@CubsNHS_Bot) April 30, 2024
So now the Cubs have a runner in scoring position for just the second time in the game (also Tauchman in the seventh). Matt Mervis hit into a force play, moving Swanson to third.
That set the stage for this Nick Madrigal at-bat [VIDEO].
Both Swanson’s single and Madrigal’s force play were on broken bats, as you can see, and Madrigal beat a possible double-play relay, allowing Swanson to score the tying run.
Mark Leiter Jr. finished the eighth for Taillon without incident, setting up the Cubs’ winning rally in the ninth.
Tauchman hit a double with one out, putting the lead run in scoring position.
That ball was crushed! [VIDEO]
Fun fact about Morel’s homer from BCB’s JohnW53:
The Cubs had not had a tie-breaking ninth-inning homer since July 4, 2022, by Seiya Suzuki, at Milwaukee, with one out and nobody on, off Josh Hader. The score that day also was 1-1.
Morel’s was their 116th go-ahead homer in the ninth since 1912, the first season for which baseball-reference.com has searchable play-level data: 62 on the road and 54 at home.
So the Cubs had the lead for the first time, and a two-run lead. That left it up to Hector Neris and… oh, no, Hector, you’re not giving us another high-wire act, are you?
Yes, yes, Hector did that. He walked Pete Alonso to lead off the inning. One out later Alonso stole second, but that didn’t matter because Neris walked Jeff McNeil. That put the tying run on base.
Neris then struck out DJ Stewart and that brought up Brett Baty.
Neris struck Baty out to end the game [VIDEO].
So, Neris converts another save chance but… seriously, we could all use a little less drama.
A note about this satisfying win:
Tonight is the first time the Cubs allowed a leadoff homer and no other runs since June 1, 2016, when Enrique Hernández hit a leadoff shot off Jon Lester in a 2-1 Cubs win vs Dodgers
— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) April 30, 2024
Here are some highlights of Taillon’s outing, lots of soft contact [VIDEO].
Taillon struck out only one (it’s in the clip), but with soft contact like that, that’s outstanding work. He threw only 78 pitches (57 strikes). Here’s a breakdown of Taillon’s outing [VIDEO].
Here are Craig Counsell’s postgame comments [VIDEO].
That’s a really nice way to open this four-game set. The Cubs will go for two in a row over the Mets Tuesday evening at Citi Field. Javier Assad will take the mound for the Cubs and he’ll face Mets lefthander Sean Manaea. Game time is 6:10 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.