It’s a strategy familiar to anyone who follows baseball.
Middle innings, team rallying, left-handed hitter comes up. The team on defense sends in a left-handed reliever. The batting team counters with a right-handed pinch-hitter.
That was the scenario in the bottom of the sixth on a sunny, but chilly Saturday afternoon at Wrigley Field. The Cubs had two runners on with two out and Moisés Ballesteros due up. The Mets sent in left-hander Brooks Raley. Craig Counsell sent Carson Kelly up to bat for Ballesteros… and Kelly deposited Raley’s first pitch into the left-field bleachers for a three-run homer, which was the difference in the Cubs’ fourth win in a row, 4-2 over the Mets, also the Mets’ 10th straight defeat.
Let’s rewind to the beginning. Jameson Taillon threw a lot of pitches in the first inning (including 10 to leadoff batter Carson Benge, who struck out). Then he served up a solo homer to Mark Vientos in the second, giving the Mets a 1-0 lead.
The Cubs matched that in the bottom of the inning, on Ian Happ’s sixth homer of the year [VIDEO].
Happ didn’t hit his sixth homer last year until June 10, the Cubs’ 58th game. He could be on target for a career high (currently: 25).
That’s where the game stayed, a 1-1 tie and pretty good pitchers’ battle between Taillon and Freddy Peralta, until the sixth. Taillon settled down after Vientos’ homer and allowed just five more baserunners, only one of whom reached second base. Another, Luis Robert Jr., was thrown out trying to steal by Miguel Amaya [VIDEO].
Overall, I thought it was a good outing by Taillon, who threw 100 pitches (61 strikes). Here’s more on Jamo’s afternoon [VIDEO].
More on Taillon’s day from BCB’s JohnW53:
This was Taillon’s 40th quality start among 84 total starts as a Cub. It was the 15th QS in which he gave up one run and the seventh of those in which the run came on a home run. He did it three times each in 2024 and 2025.
Say what you want about Taillon, but he has been a perfectly good starter almost all the time he’s been a Cub, and he’s off to a good start in 2026.
Peralta also settled down after Happ’s homer, until he retired the first two batters in the sixth. Then he walked Happ, followed by a walk to Seiya Suzuki — who got ball 4 challenged by the Mets, but the call was confirmed [VIDEO].
That turned out to be very important. After the walk, Peralta was relieved by Raley, and Kelly batted for Ballesteros.
About Kelly’s homer, from John:
According to my research, Carson Kelly’s pinch-hit homer was the Cubs’ 359th of the kind since 1901. They have been hit by 228 batters. Kelly is the 82nd to hit more than one.
The Cubs’ previous three-run pinch homer had been by Miguel Amaya, on Aug. 1, 2023, at home against the Reds. The Cubs led at the time, 17-5.
The last that broke a tie was by Geovany Soto, a walk-off in the 13th inning on June 30, 2011 vs. the Giants.
They had hit six more three-run pinch homers since then before Kelly’s today.
Ben Brown threw a scoreless seventh and then allowed an unearned run to the Mets in the eighth in a very weird inning in which he got five ground balls that all could have been outs. First, a comebacker by Bo Bichette that went off Brown’s leg for a hit. Then Francisco Lindor hit a ball that Dansby Swanson couldn’t quite corral. A grounder by Robert resulted in a force play, and Brown struck out MJ Melendez for the second out.
That was a rare, rushed, bad throw from Nico Hoerner that pulled Michael Busch off first base. Francisco Alvarez was called out, but clearly, Busch’s foot was not on the base and the call was overturned. That resulted in a run scoring to make it 4-2. Brown then got another ground ball, handled smoothly by Alex Bregman, to end the inning.
The Cubs didn’t score in the eighth and Caleb Thielbar was given the save opportunity. He struck out the first two batters he faced, at times hitting 96 on the Wrigley pitch speed meter, and got a little popup to end the game [VIDEO].
Thielbar’s veteran presence made that one seem easy, and even though typically left-handers aren’t used in the closing role, perhaps he can handle it while Daniel Palencia is out.
Here are some postgame comments from Kelly [VIDEO].
The Cubs’ streaks of scoring 10+ runs (three games) and seven+ runs (five games) thus ended, but I’m sure you don’t mind that as long as the “W” flag flies from the Wrigley Field scoreboard. That’s four straight for the Cubs and the first time in 2026 that they have won the first two games of a series. They will go for the sweep Sunday afternoon at Wrigley Field. Javier Assad will start for the Cubs and David Peterson goes for the Mets. Game time is again 1:20 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
