The Mets showed no signs of a potential letdown in their series opener against the Cincinnati Reds, beating them by a score of 5-1 on Monday night at Citi Field.
Here are the takeaways...
- As they have done all season, especially at home, the Mets scored in the first inning, this time on a Starling Marte two-run home run off former Met prospect Justin Dunn before Dunn could record an out.
They got to Dunn again in the third inning, when Francisco Lindor walked, then stole second base. With two outs and Lindor still at second, Daniel Vogelbach came through, as he has many times in his short career as a Met, with an RBI single that gave New York a 3-0 lead.
- The Reds got that run right back in the fourth inning, but Chris Bassitt pitched around some trouble on the base paths to limit the damage.
Bassitt continued to maneuver in and out of trouble in the later innings, getting a double play to end the fifth and a pop out with the bases loaded to end the sixth. With the tying run at the plate in the eighth inning, Bassitt struck out Aristides Aquino on his 114th and final pitch — a 95 mph fastball, upstairs.
The right-hander matched a season-high by going eight innings and gave up eight hits, one walk, one unearned run and struck out eight. He lowered his season ERA to 3.39.
- In the fifth inning, Lindor hit a ball to deep center field that appeared to be heading over the wall but Albert Almora Jr., who just entered the game, made a leaping catch and robbed him of a home run.
- Getting the start against the team that traded him, Tyler Naquin delivered a two-out, two-run triple in the eighth inning that just missed being a home run and gave the Mets some breathing room, 5-1.
- Adam Ottavino came in for the ninth inning and despite some traffic on the bases, got the final three outs to give the Mets their fourth straight win.