First pitch: Thursday, 2:20 p.m. ET
Line: Chicago -130, New York +120, Total:

The Chicago Cubs look to complete a sweep of the New York Mets when they meet at Wrigley Field this Thursday afternoon.

New York was the hottest team in baseball to start the season, winning 13 of its first 16 games, but has fallen off in dramatic fashion since and is in the middle of hitting a real rut as it faces a four-game sweep by Chicago. The games haven’t all been blowouts in the first three games of this set, with two of them being a mere one run difference, but the Mets offense has been in neutral with a meager five runs in the contests. They received a nearly flawless effort (7 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 9 K) from Matt Harvey on Wednesday night, but only spotted him one run and the bullpen gave up the game with a the Cubs scoring a run in both the eighth and ninth innings. One player that does continue to hit for New York is 2B Daniel Murphy (.244) who has raised his average more than 30 points in the last 10 games, going 12-for-38 (.316) during the stretch. As the Mets begin to falter, the Cubs begin to heat up and the young core of superstars they have brewing in the clubhouse have earned them victories in five of their last eight outings. Their offense has scored four runs per game over the first three wins of this series as the pitching continues to be phenomenal with a mere five runs allowed. They couldn’t get anything going against Harvey, but their starter, Jason Hammel, kept them in the game (8 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 6 K) and the offense was able to get to New York’s bullpen; eventually winning with a bases-loaded walk. Phenom 3B Kris Bryant (.275) has been the talk of baseball and for good reason as he has a hit in eight of his last 10 games, going 11-for-37 (.297) with three homers, nine RBI and eight runs. Toeing the rubber and attempting to put a halt this losing skid for the Mets will be LHP Jonathan Niese (3-2, 1.95 ERA) as he faces fellow LHP Travis Wood (2-2, 4.96 ERA) for the host Chicago team. The road has not brought any success to New York as the loss on Wednesday dropped their record away from home to 7-11 and it could get worse as the Cubs are now 10-7 when at Wrigley Field. Chicago has had no issues getting the best of the Mets since the start of the 2013 campaign, going 11-5 in that time and taking 7-of-9 games at home. Trends show that New York has gone 39-23 (.629) in day games since the start of last year as the Cubs are 12-8 (.600) as a favorite of -100 to -150 this season. Still missing for the Mets is 3B David Wright (Hamstring) while OF Juan Lagares (Ribs) is questionable as Chicago is just missing two role players; 3B Mike Olt (Wrist) and 2B Tommy La Stella (Ribs).

Niese does not have the flash like some of the other starters in the Mets’ rotation, but he has been phenomenal in the early going as he’s given up one or fewer runs in five of his six outings. He doesn’t rely on the strikeout pitch much (6.1 K/9), but gets batters to hit it on the ground 60.2% of the time and has left 80.3% of runners on base. Over his last three starts, Niese has given up a mere three walks and has pitched seven innings in each of his last two performances. His career has not been great against the Cubs, though, going 3-4 (4-4 team record) with a 5.16 ERA (1.68 WHIP) as he did manage to get a quality start (6 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 6 K) and a win when they met last year. C David Ross (6-for-18, 1 double, 1 triple, 1 HR, 8 RBI) could see some playing time with his solid past against Niese as SS Starlin Castro (5-for-19, 1 triple, 1 HR, 5 RBI) has also been productive. On the other side of things, OFs Dexter Fowler and Chris Coughlan are a combined 6-for-21 in the matchup. Although they failed to maintain the lead on Wednesday, New York’s bullpen has been great, going 3-2 with a 2.67 ERA (1.02 WHIP) and are 15-for-16 in save chances. Jeurys Familia (1.56 ERA, 13 saves) is first in the National League in saves and has a 21:4 K/BB ratio with a miniscule eight hits allowed over 17.1 innings.

Wood continues to pitch rather poorly as he comes off a 2014 campaign in which he had greater than a 5.00 ERA for the first time in his career. He’s gone five or fewer innings in four of his six starts and has given up 12 runs (10 ER) in his last two showings. Both his strikeouts (9.4 K/9) and walks (2.5 BB/9) are on pace to be the best of his career, but he can’t keep the ball in the park with six home runs allowed in 32.2 IP (1.65 HR/9). He will get this struggling Mets offense on Thursday and in the past against this team he is 2-1 (4-2 team record) with a 3.34 ERA (1.34 WHIP) while getting more walks (9) than strikeouts (8) over 10.1 frames in his last two outings against them. OF Juan Lagares (3-for-5, 1 double, 1 HR, 2 RBI) has done well in limited time against the lefty while 1B Lucas Duda (2-for-11) and OF Curtis Granderson (0-for-7) have struggled in their at-bats. The bullpen for Chicago has pitched to a 5-6 record with a 4.38 ERA (1.33 WHIP) as they’ve been successful in a meager 7-of-13 save opportunities. Hector Rondon (3.00 ERA, 7 saves) has one blown save on the year and earned the win on Wednesday with a perfect ninth inning.