CHICAGO — A summery night at the Friendly Confines turned into Wheel of Misfortune for the Mets.
Zack Wheeler’s best outing of the season certainly gave his team a chance Tuesday, but wasn’t enough to get the Mets a fourth straight victory and return to the magical .500 mark.
Nate Schierholtz’s RBI double against Scott Rice in the ninth ended it, in the Mets’ 2-1 loss to the Cubs before 34,697 at Wrigley Field.
The frustration for the Mets (28-30) stemmed from leaving 10 runners on base and a dreadful 1-for-9 (.111) performance with runners in scoring position against the 21-34 Cubs, who have the worst record in the majors.
Daniel Murphy grounded into a double play in the ninth after Matt den Dekker’s single had put the go-ahead run on base.
“We gave this away,” David Wright said. “Obviously not getting that lead runner in the ninth and [we had] numerous chances, what felt like it, to put that team away.”
Wright contributed to the ninth-inning meltdown by bobbling Starlin Castro’s grounder that had double-play potential. Wright got the out at first base, with Anthony Rizzo advancing to second before scoring the winning run on Schierholtz’s double.
Chris Coghlan’s homer leading off the eighth against Josh Edgin made it 1-1 and spoiled Wheeler’s shot at the win. It was a rare misstep for Edgin against a left-hander. To that point, lefties were 1-for-16 (.063) against Edgin this season.
In his strongest performance of the season, Wheeler fired 6²/₃ shutout innings in which he allowed two hits and two walks and struck out seven. The right-hander has allowed only one run over his last two starts after a shaky stretch in which he struggled with his control.
“I thought I had pretty good stuff,” Wheeler said. “I was locating all my pitches for the most part. I did get away with mistakes.
“I can only do what I can do. We’re playing good baseball right now for the most part.”
Before the game, manager Terry Collins saluted the Mets’ Triple-A Las Vegas pipeline for the job it has done replenishing the major league roster this season.
The arrivals have included den Dekker, Wilmer Flores, Eric Campbell, Jacob deGrom, Black, Edgin and even 40-year-old Bobby Abreu, who spent his first three weeks this season at Las Vegas.
“To have quality major league players ready to play at the Triple-A level, it’s a huge saving,” Collins said. “That’s where you try to get to here, and they are Mets. They aren’t six-year free agents — although we have a couple up here — and we’ve got some young guys coming.”
Den Dekker finished 2-for-5 in a second straight solid start since replacing injured Juan Lagares in center field. The rookie singled leading off the game and scored the Mets’ only run.
Den Dekker, batting leadoff for a second straight night, created a run in the first. After drawing a walk, den Dekker stole second and went to third on a wild pitch. Curtis Granderson’s sacrifice fly gave the Mets a 1-0 lead.
Chris Young was among the no-shows for the Mets. He went 0-for-4, dropping his average to .141 over his last 26 games.
Meanwhile, the Cubs never came close to rattling Wheeler. Schierholtz singled leading off the fifth for the Cubs’ second hit, but was thrown out by Travis d’Arnaud attempting to steal second.
The Mets wasted plenty of chances early against Jake Arrieta. In the third, they loaded the bases with nobody out, but failed to score as Young, Lucas Duda and Flores were retired in succession. Overall, the Metsz are a pathetic 9-for-59 (.152) with the bases loaded this season.
An inning earlier, Duda and Flores delivered consecutive singles to start the inning, but the Mets didn’t score.
“We had [10] guys on the first five innings, left nine guys on and a number of them were in scoring position,” Collins said.