Mets closer Edwin Diaz is confident his loss Monday against the Reds will be a rarity.
Diaz surrendered a tiebreaking home run to Jesse Winker in the top of the ninth inning as the Mets fell to Cincinnati 5-4 at Citi Field.
"I felt really good today," Diaz said through a translator after the game. "It was just that one pitch I made a mistake on. I felt great in the bullpen and once I got out there I felt good, but he just caught me."
In his first season as a Met, Diaz had retired 15 consecutive left-handed hitters before allowing Winker to hit a 415-foot home run to right field to break a 4-4 tie.
"I'm ready for the highs and lows of the game," Diaz said. "I pitched well, but today, I guess I was ready to take this loss because I don't think I'm going to have many more this season."
Winker's home run snapped a streak of six consecutive scoreless innings for Diaz. And while both Seth Lugo and Jeurys Familia pitched into and out of two-on, two-out jams in relief of Zack Wheeler, manager Mickey Callaway said he has been pleased with the bullpen's job of maintaining leads.
"I'm not worried at all when we're winning. ... When we're ahead, we get the job done," Callaway said. "That's really all I'm concerned about most of the time."
The Mets never led on Monday, though. Zack Wheeler gave up seven hits and three walks in six innings, allowing four runs in the second. The Mets scored twice in the second and twice in the fourth to tie it.
"It's a frustrating one, just because of that inning," Wheeler said of his start. "Other than that, I think it went well. ... Walks will kill you every time."