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The Mets won their fifth straight game today at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, beating the Reds 6-3 and sweeping the three-game and season series. The team, despite a plethora of injuries, both serious and nagging, is playing some of its best baseball of the season right now.
Jose Reyes led the game off with a home run and scored on a wild pitch in the third inning. The Reyes experiment, from a pure baseball perspective, appears to be working out better than most could have ever imagined. In 182 plate appearances thus far, he has a 122 wRC+ with six home runs and three triples.
Noah Syndergaard started for the Mets and, while throwing a lot of pitches early and scattering hits, kept the Reds off the scoreboard for his five innings of work. The one really positive part of Syndergaard’s game today was his control of the running game. In the second inning, both Brandon Phillips and Scott Schebler were thrown out attempting to steal second base. Then, in the third inning, Jose Peraza was thrown out trying to steal home. The Reds did not play very good baseball today, folks.
Reds starter Anthony DeSclafani went six innings, giving up three earned runs, including a third inning solo home run to the suddenly-hot Curtis Granderson, while striking out seven and walking one.
The Mets added two runs in the top of the eighth inning, when everyone’s favorite Friend Wilmer Flores hit a pinch-hit two-run home run. The bottom of that inning got interesting, when Gabriel Ynoa loaded the bases with no outs, giving way to Addison Reed. He let all three inherited runners score but got through the inning with the lead intact.
In the top of the ninth, back-to-back doubles by Asdrubal Carbera and Yoenis Cespedes gave the Mets an extra insurance run, and in the bottom of that inning, Jeurys Familia slammed the door shut despite a leadoff single by Joey Votto, picking up his 47th save and giving the Mets their 14th straight win against the Reds.
The Mets have a day off on Thursday before beginning a three-game series in Atlanta on Friday night.
SB Nation GameThreads
Box scores
Win Probability Added
Big winners: Noah Syndergaard, +28.7% WPA, Jose Reyes, +16.4% WPA
Big losers: Gabriel Ynoa, -10.3% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Jose Reyes’s leadoff home run, +9.9% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Jose Peraza’s two run double, -12.5% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +38.2% WPA
Total batter WPA: +11.8% WPA
GWRBI!: Wilmer”Backstreet Friend” Flores