NEW YORK -- We've reached "ridiculous" territory now.
The punchless New York Mets failed to score for the second day in a row Wednesday, losing 2-0 to the Chicago Cubs, a day after losing 1-0 to them.
What's worse, this game went 11 innings!
The Cubs finally broke the scoreless deadlock in the 11th, off Mets reliever Carlos Torres. With runners on first and third and two outs, Starlin Castro beat out an infield single, allowing Kris Bryant to score the game's first run. Later, Miguel Montero's single off Sean Gilmartin drove home Chris Coghlan for an insurance run.
The Mets fall to 40-39, but remain in second place in the National League East, currently 3.5 games behind the Washington Nationals. The Cubs rise to 41-35.
Poor Bart: Bartolo Colon pitched his best game of the season, and had nothing to show for it. The 42-year-old went seven innings, allowing just three hits, with eight strikeouts and just one intentional walk.
After giving up a leadoff double to Jonathan Herrera in the third inning, Colon retired 14 batters in a row before Mike Baxter's two-out single in the seventh.
Colon's record on the season remains 9-6, but his ERA dropped to 4.55.
Bobby Parnell, Jeurys Familia and Hansel Robles provided scoreless innings of relief, prior to the 11th.
Wasted opportunities: The Mets had seven hits in the game -- which is actually four more than they had on Tuesday (with two more innings to work with).
And they squandered some early opportunities to score. Curtis Granderson led off the first inning with a single and was stranded. John Mayberry Jr. led off the second with a double and the Mets eventually loaded the bases with one out, but Colon popped out and Granderson flew out. And Juan Lagares led off the fifth with a double and did not score, either.
Three-time All-Star Jon Lester was the Cubs' starter. He hadn't been in good form of late, entering the game 4-6 with a 4.03 ERA, but he delivered seven shutout innings on Wednesday.
The Mets had another great chance to break through in the bottom of the eighth off reliever Pedro Strop. Ruben Tejada led off and reached on a throwing error by Castro. A double by Daniel Murphy gave the Mets runners on second and third with one out. Darrell Ceciliani pinch-hit for Mayberry Jr. and the Mets tried a squeeze play, but it failed -- Tejada was caught in a rundown, and eventually both Tejada and Murphy ended up on third base and were called out. The umpires convened and ruled Murphy safe after further discussion, but Ceciliani struck out anyway to end the inning.
And in the bottom of the 11th, the Mets had runners on first and third with two outs, but Kevin Plawecki struck out looking.
Lucas Duda looked particularly bad at the plate on the night, going 0-for-5 with four strikeouts.
What's next: The series finale, and it's a quick turnaround. Jacob deGrom (8-5, 2.15) will start Thursday for the Mets, opposed by Jake Arrieta (7-5, 2.94), with first pitch scheduled for 1:10 p.m. ET.
