NEW YORK _ The Mets, and especially Jacob deGrom, took a big step forward in a 6-1 win over the Cubs on Monday night at Citi Field.
After a pair of stinkers, deGrom threw a gutsy five-hitter for the Mets' first complete game of 2017. Asdrubal Cabrera hit a pair of home runs and Jay Bruce hit his team-leading 17th as the Mets won their fourth in a row.
Yoenis Cespedes took some steps, too. Very slow steps. And then he had to leave the game after five innings because of what the Mets later called "a sore left heel."
Cespedes only returned on Saturday from a stint on the disabled list because of a left hamstring strain. He's also had problems with his right quad and admitted upon his return that he is not 100 percent healed. Or heeled, apparently.
DeGrom (5-3) had allowed an astonishing 15 runs and 18 hits in just eight innings in his last two outings. That came directly after two starts in which he gave up one run in 15 1/3 innings.
On Monday, deGrom was aided by double plays in four consecutive innings, from the third to the sixth. He was also perhaps aided in a different way by a comical error on a pop-up to the first batter of the second inning.
The game was scoreless when Jason Heyward sent a pop-up to the left side of the infield. Third baseman Jose Reyes and shortstop Cabrera both called for it, and neither backed off until the very last second, when they brushed up against each other and let the ball fall for a two-base error that was charged to Cabrera.
DeGrom didn't let the gaffe upset him. It may have also emboldened the right-hander to bear down and get out of the inning unscathed, which deGrom did when he got Willson Contreras to foul out to first, struck out Javier Baez and _ after an intentional walk to Addison Russell _ struck out pitcher John Lackey.
Lackey, who came into the game with a 5.12 ERA, served up several long drives to the Mets. Neil Walker nearly had a homer in the first when Heyward leapt at the right-field wall to catch his shot. Lucas Duda ended the first with two men on by taking Heyward to the warning track in right-center.
Cabrera, after getting charged with the embarrassing error in the top of the second, got revenge leading off the bottom half with a homer to right for the first run of the game.
Bruce (3-for-3, walk) made it 3-0 with a two-run shot in the third. Cabrera led off the fourth by smacking the first pitch for his sixth home run of the season and a 4-0 Mets lead.
Manager Terry Collins and trainer Ray Ramirez visited Cespedes in leftfield before the top of the fifth. Cespedes stayed in the game and hit a fly ball to center for the final out of the bottom half, but he did not return to the outfield for the sixth.
Russell got the Cubs on the board with a solo shot in the seventh, much to the delight of the many Cubs fans among the crowd of 33,268.
Travis d'Arnaud had a two-out, RBI double and Reyes followed with a run-scoring single in the eighth to make it 6-1. DeGrom hit for himself and went out for the ninth with a pitch count of 106.
DeGrom set the Cubs down in order in the ninth. He walked four and struck out six in a much-needed 116-pitch gem. It was his second career complete game.
