Hunter Greene and Brandon Sproat were engaged in a pitchers duel for much of the game, but it was Greene and his 12 strikeouts over seven innings that came out ahead in this one even as the Mets made it interesting in the 9th. The Cincinnati Reds held on for a 3-2 win as they took the series over New York and moved back over the .500 mark and kept their slim playoff hopes alive.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York Mets (76-67) | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| Cincinnati Reds (72-71) | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| W: Greene (6-4) L: Sproat (0-1) SV: Santillan | |||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
Hunter Greene was cruising through the Mets lineup early. The Reds righty struck out six of the first seven batters he faced. But Brett Baty homered with one out in the 3rd inning to put New York up 1-0.
That’s where the game stayed until the bottom of the 4th. Noelvi Marte walked to begin the inning and then stole second base. He would move up a base on a ground out and then come in to score and tie the game up on a sacrifice fly by Austin Hays.
The pitching had been dominating the game, so much so that until the bottom of the 6th inning there was only one hit between the two teams. Noelvi Marte picked up the Reds first hit with one out in the 6th on a soft line drive into right field. Elly De La Cruz then followed up with a double into the right-center gap. Marte scored from first base and when the throw went to the plate, De La Cruz grabbed third base. Cincinnati kept their rally going when Austin Hays singled into left to bring in another run and make it 3-1.
Pete Alonso would walk to begin the 7th inning as Greene missed at the bottom of the zone by about an inch. He didn’t miss the rest of the inning as he struck out the next three batters to hold onto a 3-1 lead and push his strikeout total to 12 on the game.
Nick Martinez took over for Greene to start the top of the 8th inning. He made easy work of the Mets, needing just seven pitches to record three outs. Tony Santillan entered the game for the top of the 9th. After getting an easy fly out to start the frame, Santillan gave up a home run to Juan Soto as New York made it a 1-run game. Pete Alonso then reached on an error when Elly De La Cruz couldn’t make a clean throw on a ball from the outfield grass. The Mets sent out Luisangel Acuna to pinch run and he moved up to second base when Brandon Nimmo singled. De La Cruz helped end the game five pitches later when Santillan shattered the bat of Starling Marte and De La Cruz fielded it and glove flipped it to Matt McLain who turned and fired a strike to Spencer Steer at first to beat Marte on a bang-bang play at the bag to end the game.
Key Moment of the Game
The double play that ended the game and stranded two runners on the bases.
Notes Worth Noting
The two teams combined for seven hits on the day. Two of the Mets three hits landed in the seats.
Hunter Greene matched a season high with his 12 strikeouts on the day. His 7-inning, 1-run outing lowered his ERA to 2.59 on the season. He now has 19 walks and 113 strikeouts in 90.1 innings over his 16 starts.
From Joel Luckhaupt on Bluesky this afternoon: Hunter Greene threw 30 pitches at 100+ MPH. It was the 9th time in his career he’s done that in a game. Since 2008 when we have had pitch tracking Jacob deGrom is the only other pitcher to throw 30 100+ MPH pitches in a single game.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds vs San Diego Padres
Monday September 8th, 9:40pm ET
Nick Lodolo (8-7, 3.22 ERA) vs TBA
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