Mets vs. Reds Recap: Late afternoon blues

The Mets’ modest four-game winning streak got sucked into the black hole that has been 2017 Sundays at Citi Field, as a solid performance by Jacob deGrom and a nice comeback from an early 2-0 hole morphed into a late Reds blowout that saw the Mets’ bullpen surrendered eight runs over the final three innings in a 10-5 loss.

The game did not get off to an auspicious start, as four of the first five runners reached against deGrom in a top of the first that saw the Reds take an early 2-0 lead. The Mets answered right back with a run in the bottom of the first, as Jose Reyes singled and moved to third on a Norichika Aoki double, before coming home on a Travis d’Arnaud ground out.

After walking Tucker Barnhart to lead off the second, deGrom settled in and went to work. He retired fifteen of the next sixteen batters, allowing only an infield single over the span. deGrom struck out 10 batters in total, giving him double-digits for the 10th time this year.

The Mets tied the game in the third on a Dominic Smith RBI single, and it stayed 2-2 into the bottom of the sixth. With deGrom over 100 pitches, it looked like his chances of recording his 15th victory of the season were slim. However, when Smith homered to lead off the frame and the Mets added two more on a Jose Reyes double for a three-run lead, things suddenly looked promising, especially with a bullpen showing improvement of late.

Unfortunately, those signs—and any chance of victory—evaporated quickly over the final three innings. Paul Sewald surrendered a three-run home run to Zack Cozart to quickly tie the game and deny deGrom any chance of victory. An erratic Jeurys Familia then surrendered two runs in the eighth on a Tucker Barnhart double—the second of which was almost cut down on an excellent Amed Rosario relay, but d’Arnaud botched the tag (Terry Collins got tossed coming out to question the replay overturn). The game turned into a laugher in the ninth when Hansel Robles surrendered a three-run blast to Barnhart (sans pointing to the sky this time).

The defeat was an all-too-familiar 2017 result in general, but especially given the day and locale—the Mets fell to 6-16 on Sundays this season, including a sixth defeat where a victory would have resulted in an elusive 2017 home series sweep.

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Win Probability Added

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What’s WPA?

Big winners: Dominic Smith, +15.7% WPA, Jose Reyes, +10.6% WPA, Jacob deGrom, +10.6% WPA
Big losers: Jeurys Familia, -38.7% WPA, Paul Sewald, -34.3% WPA,
The aw3s0mest play: Dominic Smith solo home run in sixth inning, +17.9%
The sux0rest play: Zack Cozart three-run home run in seventh inning, -34.0%
Total pitcher WPA: 62.1% WPA-
Total batter WPA: 12.1% WPA+
GWRBI!: Tucker Barnhart