A scene familiar to Chicago Cubs fans played itself out on Friday night at Citi Field. Or, at least it almost did. Cubs closer Carlos Marmol came perilously close to blowing a four-run ninth inning lead, but a mixture of good defense and luck allowed the Cubs to hang on to an 8-7 victory in game one of the teams' three-game series in Queens.
Marmol entered in the ninth with the Cubs up 8-4, and quickly did what Marmol often does. After striking out Mets outfielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis to lead off the inning, Marmol surrendered a homer to Jordany Valdespin to bring the score to 8-5. Marmol then walked Ruben Tejada, Daniel Murphy and David Wright to load the bases. With one out, Ike Davis singled to right field to score Tejada and Murphy and bring the Mets to within a single run. But in the next at-bat, Mets rightfielder Lucas Duda lined a ball up the middle that was snared by Marmol, who then flipped the ball to first base to double up Davis.
Before that, the Cubs hitters put on one of their best shows of the season, racking up 19 hits and eight runs, including Anthony Rizzo's fourth homer of the season.
The two teams will be back on the field on Saturday at 3:10 p.m. CT.
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