Remembering Mets History (2016) Wilmer Flores Ties Club Record With Six Hits

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Sunday July 3rd, 2016: The Mets had returned home after being swept in Washington D.C. The reigning NL Champs continued to struggle, losing eight of their last twelve games.

Terry Collins Mets (40-37) were hosting Joe Maddon's first place Cubs (51-27) in front of 36,137 fans at Citi Field. The last time they faced each other, the Mets swept the Cubs in last year's NLCS to advance to the World Series. 

The Mets picked up where they left off, maybe they were still in the Cubbies heads, or the ghosts of the 1969 Mets & Cubs, came back to haunt them once again. The Mets took the first three games of the series & went for the sweep on Sunday. Starting pitchers were Noah Syndergaard (8-3) going up against Jon Lester (9-3). 
 

The Mets had no problem sweeping the Cubs today as the scored a season high 14 runs & collected 22 hits beating up on Jon Lester for eight runs in just an inning a third. The Mets scored six more runs off the next three pitchers Patton, Peralta & Montero.
The Mets ace, Noah Syndergaard earned his ninth win of the year (9-4) as he allowed just one run in seven innings of work, lowering his ERA to 2.41. Noah also collected a double & scored a run.

 At the plate, seven different Mets had two hits on the day, but Wilmer Flores who had been struggling, had the biggest day of all. 

He became the second Met in team history to go 6-6 in a game. The other being Edgardo Alfonzo. 
Flores homered twice & drove in four runs on his big day. He also scored three runs & raised his average to .251.

Quotes: Wilmer Flores: "Unbelievable feeling, Six hits? I never thought I was going to get six hits ever. But it happened. I put good swings on the ball."

 Curtis Granderson returned after four games with an injured calf, and hit a 1st inning HR.

It was in the Mets 2nd that they caused the most damage scoring seven runs & sending 13 men to the plate. Flores stared it with a solo HR. Matt Reynolds doubled & Rene Rivera hit a two run HR, his 3rd HR of the year.

Noah then walked, went to 3rd on Juan Lagares' double. Granderson then singled in Noah & Yoenis Cespedes singled in Lagares to make it 6-1 Mets. Neil Walker & Flores followed with RBI singles of their own to make it 8-1 New York.

Rene Rivera singled in Flores in the 4th inning for another Mets run. In the 5th Flores hit his second HR of the day a two run shot to make it 11-1. 

In the 7th Kelly Johnson joined the fun hitting a two run shot to make it 13-1.

In the 8th Jacob deGrom even got a pinch hit appearance, although he flew out. But singles by Johnson, Flores & Loney's RBI single capped off the 14-3 win. The Cubs said goodbye to the black cat & the ghost of Ron Santo from 1969 as they left New York.

Trivia: It was the first time the Mets swept the Cubs in four games in the regular season since 1085. (They swept Chicago in the 2015 NLCS) 
Quotes- Cubs Manager Joe Maddon: "It was a rough weekend -- give the Mets credit. They really swung the bats well, and of course, they always pitch well. They got us this time, they got us last year at the end of the season. For me, it's keep moving it forward. This is an easy game for me to forget about."

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