Jon Niese pitched brilliantly for the Mets only allowing one run on a RBI double by Matt Szczur but that was all the Cubs needed as Kyle Hendricks and the Chicago bullpen blanked the Mets, 1-0, Tuesday night at Citi Field. 

The New York Mets once again began the carousel that is their 6-man rotation Tuesday night when Jon Niese took the mound against the Chicago Cubs. A few rumors have circled around the past couple days that Niese is involved in trade talks with other teams, one being the Cubs. If those rumors are in fact true Niese displayed a good showing Tuesday going 7.0 innings, only giving up four hits, four walks and five strikeouts. His only blemish was that earned run in the 6th inning that unfortunately gave him the loss.

That one run came after Niese made a safe decision to go to first base on a come-backer to the mound instead of trying to get the lead runner Kris Bryant out at second. With two-outs and a runner in scoring position Matt Szczur came up and drilled a RBI double off the left field wall giving the Cubs all the offense they needed.

Daniel Murphy made his return to the lineup tonight and provided a spark on defense at third base, making two outstanding plays, and also contributed to the offense with a double in the 4th inning. After the Murphy double, though, the Mets failed to record a hit the rest of the game. Lucas Duda was the only player to reach base for New York after the 4th inning with a two-out walk in the 6th. 

The Mets' offense again looked completely out of sorts - but this is old news now. 

Mets' fans have been up-in-arms about this teams' offense the past month. With players like Lucas Duda barely hitting over .200 in the month of June and veterans like Michael Cuddyer hitting under .200 with runners in scoring position on the year it is hard to imagine this offense producing much. 

New York is stacked with a countless number of young arms and outstanding pitchers. Regrettably, the offense has been unable to provide run support and because of it they lost their fourth '1-0' game on the season and were shutout for the eighth time this year. 

The Mets end the month of June with a record of 13-15 and are clinging to just two-games above .500. With the Washington Nationals continuing their red-hot surge it could become very difficult very soon for the Mets to stay in contention for the NL East race, and possibly even the wild-race, if their offense sustains this ongoing slump. 

Tomorrow is the first day of July and hopefully a fresh start for the New York Mets and their hitters.

Bartolo Colon (9-6, 4.89 ERA) will get the ball for New York against Jon Lester (4-6, 4.03 ERA) and the Cubs.