Flores gets six hits as Mets sweep Cubs

Wilmer Flores (two), Rene Rivera and Kelly Johnson added home runs of their own, giving the Mets five home runs in a game for the second time in three days.

Four games, all Mets. He joined Edgardo Alfonzo as the only two Mets to accomplish the feat. The offensive outburst was a welcomed sight for NY, which had totaled only 13 runs in its previous six games and had four homers over its last eight contests.

The Reds send left-hander Cody Reed (0-2, 9.00 ERA) against Cubs righty Kyle Hendricks (6-6, 2.76).

Wilmer Flores went 6-for-6 and had two of New York’s five home runs, and the Mets capped a four-game sweep of the Cubs by battering Jon Lester in a 14-3 win Sunday.

The Cubs are 22 games in front of last-place Cincinnati, which has dropped eight of its last 10 including Sunday’s 12-1 loss to Washington.

In a very short time, the Cubs went from being one of the worst teams in baseball at the time of that deal to in the NLCS last season and a favorite to win it all -why dance around it – this season.

Arrieta started his first eight batters with balls. Lester walked Syndergaard, and Juan Lagares doubled. Walker had been 4 for 28 against Arrieta, including the postseason.

Stephen Piscotty slugged a two-out grand slam home run in the bottom of the sixth, leading the St. Louis Cardinals to a three-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers with a rain-soaked 9-8 win. Josh Osich (1-1) pitched a scoreless 10th, and Santiago Casilla got his 19th save, stranding the potential tying run at third.

The Mets jumped out early against the Cubs on Sunday, leading, 13-1, by the eighth inning – which meant that after getting the third out of the seventh inning, catcher Miguel Montero remained on the mound for the eighth.

“Huge day for him”, Mets manager Terry Collins said.

That’s what the Cubs did.

Nimmo started in left field and singled to shallow left-center in the second inning.

Ben Zobrist homered off Erik Goeddel in the seventh. Noah Syndergaard was excellent, but he gave up one run in the top of the first before the Mets started their barrage against Lester. Looking to end their long championship drought, they hit the halfway point of the season with a 51-30 record – barely still best in the majors – and a comfortable cushion in the NL Central.

That sets up the rotation best given the three pre-break opponents, I think. “I was driving to the ballpark and the phone rang”, Maddon said. This year we’ve gone through a lull again. “He’s doing his due diligence”.

You could see Joe Maddon seething in the dugout after all three of these calls, two of which were strike three calls.

Mets first baseman James Loney made a nifty throw for a reverse force double play in the third inning. SS Asdrubal Cabrera was rested. “In that start against the Nationals, I was feeling really strong and really good, and I was just trying to throw the ball harder as opposed to going out there and pitching”.

Catch Lester as he looks to build off his great month with his first start of July in today’s matchup against the Mets at 12:10 on WGN.

NOTES: The Cubs placed OF Chris Coghlan (right rib cage strain) on the 15-day disabled list and recalled INF Jeimer Candelario from Triple-A Iowa.