In the bottom of the third inning, R.A. Dickey was heading to cover first base after a groundball hit by Kosuke Fukudome. He very slowly and awkwardly collapsed on his way to the base, and was taken out of the game limping. Nobody knows yet how long he’ll be out of action or what the exact nature of the injury is.

Before the Dickey collapse, in the top of the third, Jose Reyes showed off some base-running skills by coming all the way around after hitting a double, with two fielding errors from the cubs allowing him to go onto third and eventually cross the plate.

Pedro Beato replaced Dickey in the third, and gave up a two-run blast to Carlos Pena, followed by a ground-out RBI from Koyie Hill and an RBI-single by Carlos Zambrano all in the 4th inning, putting the Mets behind 4-1. Josh Thole answered back with an RBI single in the 5th, which was erased in the bottom half with a two run double by Alfonso Soriano.

The Cubs tacked on another run in each of the 6th, 7th and 8th innings and totaled 17 hits on the night. Their starting pitcher Carlos Zambrano went 3-3.

It seems the biggest problem for the Mets were the performances by the relief pitchers. Beato gave up 4 hits and 4 runs, and Pat Misch allowed 3 runs and 4 hits as well. Even Byrdak and Isringhausen allowed a run each, making Taylor Buckholz and K-Rod the only relievers who had scoreless outings, each for two-thirds of an inning.

The Mets offense wasn’t terrible, with 9 hits and 3 runs, though Jason Bay and Carlos Beltran were both unproductive in the most important lineup spots, but even if they had been, asking to match nine runs is asking a lot. There were some good offensive performances, both from Reyes and Daniel Murphy, but in the end it just wasn’t enough to make up for the disastrous pitching.