Mets miss late-inning opportunities, waste Brett Baty's two home runs in loss to  Cubs

The calendar says early May, but what transpired at Citi Field on Saturday night had a slight October feel.

A crowd of 41,423 packed the ballpark and a national television audience watched the best teams in the NL East and NL Central going head-to-head.

And they experienced the requisite disappointment that comes after a devastating defeat. The Mets’ 6-5 loss to the Cubs was theirs for the taking, but despite two home runs and five RBIs from recently recalled Brett Baty, opportunity passed them by.

Twice.

With the Mets trailing 6-5 in the ninth, Francisco Lindor hit into a double play and Juan Soto grounded out to second to end the game.

Two innings earlier, trailing 4-3, the Mets had runners on first and second with one out for Soto and Pete Alonso against Daniel Palencia. He struck out Soto with an 87-mph slider before getting Alonso to ground out to Dansby Swanson.

“We created traffic,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We couldn’t come up with a big hit. But I’ll take my chances every night as long as we continue to put guys on base and, more times than not, those guys will come through.”

Tylor Megill (3-3, 3.10 ERA) started for the Mets and allowed four runs and seven hits in 4  2⁄3 innings. He walked two and struck out seven after Mendoza praised him in his pregame news conference for “getting ahead and putting hitters away.”

Naturally, Megill allowed two runs, three hits and walked two in the first inning.

One-time Mets prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong led off the game with a single, stole second and advanced to third on Francisco Alvarez’s throwing error. Kyle Tucker walked and the Cubs had first and third with none out.

Seiya Suzuki singled past a diving Luisangel Acuna to drive in Crow-Armstrong. Four batters later, Swanson’s two-out infield single made it 2-0. Megill struck out Miguel Amaya to end the inning, but he had thrown 29 pitches — 16 strikes and 13 balls.

“Obviously ran into some trouble early in the first inning,” Megill said. “Obviously ran up a pitch count there.”

Michael Busch had an RBI single in the third and Swanson led off the fourth with his eighth home run to make it 4-0. He hammered Megill’s 1-and-2 fastball 404 feet into the left-centerfield seats.

“They’re swinging the bat really well,” Megill said. “They got a really good lineup.”

Reliever Brad Keller started the game for the Cubs and recorded a 1-2-3 first inning before being replaced by celebrated prospect Cade Horton for the second.

Before the game, Cubs manager Craig Counsell dismissed the notion that he was specifically trying to keep the 23-year-old righty away from the top of the Mets’ lineup.

Instead, he said his rationale was “to give those hitters different looks. I think that’s important to do. And so this might be one way to accomplish that.”

Horton, the No. 46 prospect on MLB Pipeline’s list, struck out five in four innings, yielding three runs and four hits to earn his first major-league win. Baty hit a three-run home run with two outs in the fourth to cut the Mets’ deficit to 4-3.

The Mets experienced a scare in the bottom of the third when Alvarez was hit on the hand by Horton’s 95-mph fastball. Trainers came out and examined the hand, but Alvarez stayed in the game.

Amaya’s two-out, two-run single in the eighth made it 6-3. Baty’s two-out, two-run homer brought the Mets within one run in the bottom of the inning.

“I’m just trying to hit the ball hard and put together good [at-bats],” he said.

Although Mendoza emphasized his belief before and after the game that Baty is a major-league player, the 25-year-old expressed little interest in discussing how and where he fits into the Mets’ plans.

“No, not until you all bring it up. I’ll say it time and time again: I’m just trying to be the best player I can be,” Baty said. “I don’t make those decisions.”