The Mets again powered and pitched their way to a victory last night, beating the Reds 5-3 in a back-and-forth matchup. Noah Syndergaard and Raisel Iglesias faced off, but the biggest story of the night was the continued surge of Neil Walker.
The fun got started early when Michael Conforto, who would eventually go 3-for-3 with a walk, crushed a 2-1 pitch from Iglesias to the 7 Line seats in right-center field.
In the second inning, both teams had runners in on third but could not plate them. In the third, the Reds manufactured a run thanks to the most Billy Hamilton sequence possible. The speedy center fielder bunted for a base hit, stole second and third, and scored on a Zack Cozart sacrifice fly.
In the third, though, Lucas Duda made that tie disappear with a deep home run to right field.
The game would stay relatively quiet in the 4th, 5th, and 6th innings as both teams put runners aboard but failed to drive them in. In that sequence, Michael Conforto had one of the shortest ground-rule doubles you'll ever see.
In the top of the seventh, Cincinnati would again tie the game up thanks to singles from Zack Cozart and Joey Votto. Travis d'Arnaud would be forced to leave the game due to injury in that same inning.
Unfortunately for the Reds, Neil Walker is one of the hottest hitters on the planet right now. J.C. Ramirez left a pitch over the heart of the plate, and Walker drilled it over the right field wall to give the Mets a 5-3 lead.
Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia combined for six straight outs to close out the game after that, and the Mets took the first game of the series and moved to 11-7 on the year. It was great to see that, even on a night when Noah Syndergaard was not at his best (though still struck out nine), the offense was able to take control. They'll play the Reds again tonight at 7:10 p.m.