Cade Horton faced a trio of tough tasks before he even took the ball for his MLB debut: the Cubs were on the road, on national TV and facing a team of lethal hitters in the New York Mets.

Horton wasn’t at all fazed, even when his first outing gave him the whole nine yards of a baseball game — and his first MLB win.

[Cubs takeaways: What we learned in crucial win on Cade Horton’s debut]

“It was really cool,” Horton said of his milestone. “I just wanted to take it easy, slow the game down and just focus on making pitches.”

Horton was in the zone with his command, throwing 49 of his 77 pitches for strikes. He punched out five over his four innings of work.

“I thought he did a nice job,” manager Craig Counsell said of Horton after the Cubs closed out the tense 6-5 game. “He learned that his stuff definitely works here, plays here.”

The 23-year-old struck out the first batter he saw, painting a fastball on the outside corner to freeze Brandon Nimmo. A flyout and a groundout followed suit to complete a 1-2-3 inning for Horton.

In the next frame, Horton saw his first jam, which came in an unorthodox manner. Francisco Alvarez took a fastball off the hand, and then Tyrone Taylor was awarded first base when Miguel Amaya interfered with Taylor’s bat on a softly lined ball to Dansby Swanson.

Suddenly, Horton had two men on and one out with Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto lurking.

But Horton made quick work of Lindor, who flew out to Pete Crow-Armstrong in a three-pitch at-bat.

Soto sat down even quicker than Lindor. Horton induced a groundout to second in two pitches, and he was out of the inning unscathed.

“He’s a warrior,” Miguel Amaya said of catching Horton on his debut. “He was executing good pitches and dominating the zone.”

One pitch can turn the tide in an instant, and Horton learned that the hard way when he came back out for his third inning of work.

The righty had just notched his third strikeout, which brought Brett Baty up with two on and two out.

Baty, who was hitting .210 with two home runs entering the game, launched Horton’s slider 386 feet to right center, bringing the Mets right back within one run.

For Horton, it was simply part of the growing pains he’ll face as a major leaguer.

“It was the first home run I’ve given up and it’s not going to be the last one,” he said. “You can’t change it — it happened. You have to just find a way to attack the next guy and get the out.”

Horton stuck with it and limited the damage to just the home run. In the fifth inning, he worked around a Lindor single and steal to punch out Soto and retire Pete Alonso on a lineout after falling behind 3-0 in the count.

Though he solidified a lot of firsts Saturday, Horton’s most memorable moment of the day was hardly baseball-related.

“Getting stuck in traffic, I won’t forget that!” Horton joked. “I’m showing up an hour late, almost!”

For Horton that was one of the perils of making a debut in New York City — but the feeling when he finally made it in the stadium was all worth his troubles.

“I think the atmosphere, being on FOX, it was super cool,” he said. “My family being here and getting my first strikeout was really cool as well.”

Horton is staying level-headed, because he knows it’s just the beginning of what he’ll hope can be a long journey.

“There will be a lot of ups and downs in the future,” Horton said. “It’s just about staying present and taking it one day at a time.”