Baseball | Tuesday, May 23, 2023 7:37 AM (Revised at: Tuesday, May 23, 2023 9:03 AM)

Chicago Cubs vs NY Mets Best Bet: The Mets Hit the Windy City

IMAGO / NurPhoto

US Sports Expert

Chicago Cubs vs NY Mets Best Bet: Tuesday, May 23rd

The New York Mets tote a 5-game win streak into the Windy City to face the Cubs on Tuesday for the first game of a 3-game set. The line setters don’t seem to be impressed enough, and our resident baseball expert Ej Garr wants to make them pay for offering a reasonable line for our best bet of the day! Let’s take it to the diamond!

In this article:

Chicago Cubs vs NY Mets Preview

May 24, 00:40 (UK time)

Remember my Drunk Line Setter Alert that I issued a few times during the college basketball season? Well, we are facing that situation again because the Mets are barely even favoured over the Cubs on Tuesday and that makes absolutely no sense at all!

Oh, first of all, as usual, I apologize for the Rangers failing to cash our bet on Monday by a 0.5 run, so that means I need to make up for it as I usually do.

As you all know, I live here in New York and I watch a lot of Mets and Yankees baseball, and if you didn’t see what the Mets did last week I will catch you up. Back in the day, the fans used to call the 1986 team the Miracle Mets because of how many comebacks that team achieved en route to their second World Series title.

Now, I am not saying that I think the Mets are going to take this year’s title, but this past week reminded me of those days. The Mets were down and left for dead after losing game 1 of the series against the Rays last Tuesday, but the magic just seemed to produce itself since last Wednesday night.
Once again, the Mets were down two runs in the bottom of the 9th inning and the oddsmakers gave them a 2% chance to mount any type of comeback. Well, you can take your 2% and hide it where the sun doesn’t shine because that 2% was all the Mets needed to pull off the win on Wednesday. We all know that the Rays have the best record in baseball, and just when it looked like they were going to take the first two games of the series, the first of three miracles happened that would happen over the next few days.

New York ended up taking 2 of 3 games from the Rays, and then Cleveland came to Citi Field for a 3-game set. Miracle #2 is on deck! A 7 – 7 tie needed extra innings to declare the winner of the game, and Cleveland scored twice in the top of the 10th to put the Mets back against the wall again. The Polar Bear bashed a grand slam after the Mets were down 5 – 0, and former Indian Francisco Lindor got his moment and he used it well. Lindor slapped the game-winning hit and the Mets took the win.

The next day’s game was rained out and the Mets had both of their aces pitching the doubleheader on Sunday. Mex Scherzer started the first game and Justin Verlander started the nightcap, and the Mets went on to win both of those games to sweep the Guardians. Cleveland was up 4 – 3 going to the bottom of the 8th inning and Starling Marte provided miracle #3 for the week bashing a homer that eventually led to the Mets to victory in game 1 of the DH.

Meanwhile, the Cubs are 6 – 15 over their last 21 games but we do have a decent pitching matchup to discuss here.

Drew Smyly and Kodai Senga are listed as the probable pitchers for Tuesday’s game, and on paper, Smyly certainly holds a bit of edge but that doesn’t always lead to team success. Smyly is sporting a comfortable 2.86 ERA is ultimately a result of his last 8 starts because if we take that first start against the Reds out of his numbers he is pitching lights out. After surrendering 7 runs (6 ER( to the Reds to start his 2023 campaign on April 3, Smyly hasn’t allowed more than 2 ER over his last 8 starts.

Senga has made 5 such starts in which he allowed 2 ER or less, but he has been privy to the long ball and that is a concern for us to have without a doubt. Limiting the mistakes against a Cubs team that ranks 9th in the bigs averaging 1.25 HR per game could lead to issues but the Mets are hot and I expect them to stay hot.