Wins are tough to come by for the Mets these days, and they can thank rookie catcher Francisco Álvarez for Wednesday night’s victory over the Cubs.
New York entered the ninth inning clinging to a 4–2 lead over Chicago. Adam Ottovino took the mound to attempt to close things out and allowed a leadoff home run to Seiya Suzuki. After allowing a single and a walk, the Cubs had two runners on with only one out and Ottovino was pulled in favor of Phil Bickford.
A Nick Madrigal bunt advanced the runners to second and third, then Bickford struck out Christopher Morel for the second out. That brought Ian Happ to the plate. A base hit would tie the game and likely put Chicago on top. The tension was building and Bickford was thinking about how to deal with Happ—thinking a little too much about it, in fact.
