Cubs Hand Mets Fifth Loss in a Row, 4-3

Too many left-handers. Two too many, to be exact.

It was a familiar refrain for the New York Mets as they lost their fifth in a row--a 4-3 decision to the Chicago Cubs Friday--as they fell to three games behind NL East-leading Pittsburgh.

Lefties Steve Wilson and Paul Assenmacher combined on a four-hitter, and Ryne Sandberg hit a sacrifice fly to shallow center field to drive in Jerome Walton with the game winner.

That made a winner of Assenmacher (6-2), who had relieved Wilson with a 3-2 lead at the start of the eighth inning and promptly gave up a game-tying home run to Howard Johnson. He struck out Darryl Strawberry to end the game.

“It was a case of too many lefties again,” Mets manager Bud Harrelson said. “We just seem to have touble with them, like we did in losing twice to Montreal the day before.

“There’s always a glimmer of hope,” Harrelson added. “And we have a club that’s underachieving. There is hope.”

Wilson, making his first start since Aug. 2, allowed three hits and two runs, striking out three and walking none.

“The way I had been going, I just wanted to turn in a good performance,” Wilson said. “The Mets have a tremendous lineup, but I have to admit that even in the second when I gave up all three hits, I never felt I was in trouble.”

David Cone (12-10) struck out eight and allowed only two earned runs in the loss. But catcher Charlie O’Brien called Cone’s performance “spectacular.

“He had no business losing,” O’Brien said.

He might not have were it not for O’Brien’s throwing error in the eighth which allowed Walton to go to third on an attempted steal and set up Sandberg for the game-winner.

“I guess I should have held on to the ball, but it hooked on me,” said O’Brien, who the Mets picked up from the Milwaukee Brewers for defensive help during the stretch run.

Harrelson defended his decision not to remove Cone in the eighth.

“We have a tie ball game,” Harrelson said. “I have a pitcher who is under 100 pitches, but I did not lose confidence with my bullpen.”

The defeat tied the Mets longest losing streak of the season.

Walton led off the eighth with a single. When he tried to steal second, O’Brien’s throw went into center and Walton went to third. Sandberg followed with a fly to medium centerscoring Walton as Keith Miller’s throw bounced home.

Wilson had given up just three hits and had retired 17 in a row since giving up a second-inning RBI double to Johnson.

The Cubs grabbed a 2-1 lead when Mark Grace and Andre Dawson started the fourth against Cone with consecutive homers. It was Grace’s ninth and Dawson’s 24th.

It was the first time since July 15, 1989, when Sandberg and Dwight Smith did it, that the Cubs hit consecutive homers.

The Cubs grabbed a 1-0 first-inning lead on Dawson’s two-out RBI single. Sandberg had singled and wound up on second after Cone’s errant pickoff attempt.

O’Brien hit a sacrifice fly for the Mets second run in the second.

Notes

David Cone is now 11-6 in his last 19 starts, but still has a 2.45 ERA . . . Howard Johnson now has 60 extra base hits and, since taking over at shortstop on Aug. 8, has committed only one error ... Cub Manager Don Zimmer says unlike Joe Torre of St. Louis, he is not devoting the final month to looking at a lot of newcomers. “I’ve got Greg Smith and Derrick May and that’s about it.”... Zimmer says he can understand why Larry Himes is no longer with the White Sox as general manager. “That’s baseball. The public does not need to know why. There are many reasons a club has for not keeping somebody. I remember in three consecutive years at Boston, I won 91, 95 and 97 games, but we never won the divisional title. I was fired. In Texas, Eddie Robinson was fired as GM, and the next day I was told by owner Eddie Giles, I’d be making the trades. The very next day, I was fired.”... The Cubs find themselves deciding the NL East pennant race for the fifth time in the last seven years. On Sept. 28, 1983, Philadelphia won the division at Wrigley Field. In 1984, the Cubs won. The next year, the Cardinals clinched on Oct. 5, beating the Cubs in St. Louis. In 1986, the Mets beat the Cubs in New York on Sept. 17 to clinch.