Your Monday morning dose of New York Mets and Major League Baseball news, notes, and links.
Meet the Mets
Rafael Montero had a terrific outing against the Cubs on Sunday, but Jake Arrieta was a little better, shutting out the Mets through seven innings. New York finally caught up to Chicago via a Curtis Granderson RBI single in the bottom of the eighth, but Starlin Castro hit a solo home run in the top of the ninth off of Jenrry Mejia to win it for the visitors, 2-1.
It was the Mets' fourth straight game with four hits or fewer.
Recap Parade: Amazin' Avenue short, long, MLB.com, ESPN NY, New York Times, Post, Daily News, Newsday, Star-Ledger
With Jacob deGrom set to return from the disabled list this week, Montero's Sunday start may have been his last in the majors for a while.
David Wright sat out yesterday's game after being hit on the left shoulder with a pitch on Saturday night. It was the same shoulder that Wright sat out with earlier in the season, and Terry Collins says that Wright could miss more time.
The Mets/Cubs trade rumors started buzzing again when John Harper reported that Chicago is interested in Noah "Thor" Syndergaard.
Joel Sherman also wonders why the Cubs and Mets haven't made a deal already. An anonymous executive tells Sherman that the Mets are being stingy with their pitching prospects.
Deadspin wrote a takedown of Mike Lupica in response to the Daily News columnist's hot take on Matt Harvey.
Around the NL East
Scott Hairston hit a walk-off sac fly in the bottom of the 11th inning to get the Nationals a 6-5 win over the Pirates. Washington has now won six games in a row after sweeping the Mets and the Buccos.
The Braves kept pace by completing a sweep of the suddenly slumping Athletics.
Giancarlo Stanton hit his league-leading 32nd home run of the season, and Miami crushed Arizona 10-3.
The Good Phight wrote a parody poem to recap the Phillies' latest loss to the Giants.
Around the Majors
The Rockies swept a doubleheader from the Reds on Sunday, and Michael Cuddyerhit for the cycle in the nightcap.
In Game 1, Aroldis Chapman melted down and the Rockies walked off on a Drew Stubbs home run.
Also during an eventful day in Denver, the Rockies retired Todd Helton's number 17 jersey. Here's the video message from Helton that played at Coors Field on Sunday.
There may have been more Derek Jeter fans than Rays fans at Tropicana Field this weekend.
Academy Award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey was at Fenway Park yesterday. He's bringing back the fanny pack.
Yesterday at AA
On this date in 2002, the Mets inducted Tommy Agee into the team's Hall of Fame.