Mets Roll Over Reds To Complete Sweep

 

Pete Alonso connecting on his RBI single in the first inning. Photo by Jason Schott.

The Mets romped to a 10-2 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday afternoon at Citi Field to complete the sweep of the three-game series.

The Mets improved to 73-39, winners of seven of eight games on this homestand and an astonishing 15 of 17 overall. Their lead in the National League East remained at 7 games over the Atlanta Braves (66-46), who beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-4.

Mets starting pitcher Taijuan Walker earned his tenth win of the season with a a very nice bounce-back performance after a tough outing against Atlanta last Friday night. He went six innings, and allowed just two runs, both earned, on five hits and three walks, with 5 strikeouts. Walker is now 10-3 with a 3.43 ERA (earned run average).

The Mets went to work quickly against Reds starter T.J. Zeuch, who was making his Cincinnati debut (he used to pitch for Toronto), who took the place of Robert Duggar, who went on the 15-day injured list three days after he pitched in Milwaukee in their 5-1 loss to the Brewers.

In the first inning, Brandon Nimmo reached on a hit-by-pitch and Francisco Lindor drew a walk. Pete Alonso then singled home Nimmo, and Jeff McNeil hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Lindor. 

That ran Lindor’s run-scoring streak to13 straight games, which tied a franchise record set by David Wright, from July 13 to 29, 2008.

In the second, Lindor laced a two-run single to give the Mets a 4-0 lead, and that tied him with another Mets shortstop Jose Reyes for most RBI in a season with 81.

Daniel Vogelbach then got an RBI single to score Lindor and make it 5-0 Mets, and keep up his hot start since the Mets acquired him on July 22.

In the third, another new Met, Tyler Naquin, continued to bury his old team, as he launched a solo shot to right field that landed just to the left of the Coca-Cola Corner. It was the outfielder’s third home run since he joined the Mets (he was in right in this one as Starling Marte got a rare day off).

Walker sailed through the first two innings, working around a couple of singles, but he ran into trouble in the fourth. Kyle Farmer led off with a single and scored on a Joey Votto double, then Jake Fraley hit a sacrifice fly to score Votto and cut the Mets’ lead to 6-2. Cincinnati loaded the bases in the fifth, but Walker got out of it by getting Donovan Solano to ground out to second.

The Mets tacked on another run in the bottom of the fifth, with Reiner Sanmartin in for Cincinnati, when Naquin hit a two-out double one hop off the wall in left field, and after Mark Canha was intentionally walked, Luis Guillorme beat out a grounder to shortstop Jose Barrero, who threw it away at first into the Mets dugout, and that allowed Naquin to score and make it 7-2 Mets.

The Amazin’s blew it open against Cincinnati reliever Ian Gibaut in the sixth, which Nimmo opened with a walk. Lindor and Alonso then singled to load the bases, and Vogelbach hit a double to right field to score Nimmo and Lindor to make it 9-2, and Alonso tried to score but was thrown out at the plate by Reds third baseman Solano. McNeil then got a double of his own to bring home Vogelbach to make it 10-2.