The New York Mets lost 12-4 to the Chicago Cubs on Friday, and the defeat pushed their skid to nine straight games. Chicago seized control early, racing to a 4-0 lead in the first inning when Moisés Ballesteros launched a three-run homer into the netting.
The Mets, who fell to 7-13, answered with three runs in the second but never got back even. Ian Happ added a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth, and the Cubs closed it out with a double play in the top of the ninth.
The loss was the Mets’ ninth straight and their longest losing streak since 2004, when they dropped 11 in a row on the way to a 71-91 finish. It also stands out because this is a club carrying a $352 million payroll and coming into the season with high expectations after a series of major moves following trades and free-agent losses.
The current slide began with two losses to the Arizona Diamondbacks and kept building through sweeps by the Athletics and Dodgers before Friday’s defeat in Chicago. Part of the stumble has come while Juan Soto, who is making $61.9 million this season, missed 11 games because of a calf injury.
Owner Steve Cohen tried to steady the mood on X on Tuesday, writing, “Nobody likes to lose but I saw some ‘green shoots tonight,’” and telling fans, “Hang in there fans, we will turn this around!” The message landed while the team was already deep into a stretch that has now matched the kind of extended collapse that has rarely hit the franchise.
The Mets had an eight-game losing streak in 2018 and another eight-game skid in September 2025, but the club’s longest ever remains 17 games, set in 1961. They still have two more games against the Cubs before returning home for a series against the Minnesota Twins, and the next stretch will show whether Friday was the start of a recovery or just another stop in a season that keeps slipping away.
