Final Score: Mets 8, Reds 1—A Goat and a Polar Bear Walk Into a Ballpark...

The Mets defeated the Reds 8-1 at Great American Ballpark, lifted by yet another stellar performance from Jacob deGrom. It was, as Gary Cohen put it, “routine brilliance” from deGrom, who gave up just four hits—all of them singles—on 96 pitches over seven innings of work. He struck out nine batters and walked none.

Luis Castillo matched zeros with deGrom in the early going, but the Mets finally broke through in the sixth inning when Jeff McNeil hit a solo homer to put the Mets on the board. Amed Rosario followed with a two-run bomb in the next frame to put the Mets up 3-0. Pete Alonso provided the exclamation point in the eighth inning, hitting an absolute blast off Sal Romano in the eighth for his 50th home run of the season, which stretched the Mets’ lead to 5-0.

The Reds threatened in the eighth when, after retiring the first two batters in the inning, Brad Brach surrendered a two-out single to Josh VanMeter. Mickey Callaway turned to Luis Avilan to face Joey Votto and Avilan did get the job done, walking Votto. Callaway then removed Avilan in favor of Edwin Diaz, who was tasked with facing the dangerous Eugenio Suarez. Diaz came through, striking out Suarez to squash the rally and end the inning.

The Mets blew the game open in the ninth, tacking on three runs off Keury Mella. The Reds avoided the shutout with a solo homer by Aristides Aquino off Jeurys Familia in the bottom of the ninth, but Familia escaped the inning otherwise unscathed to secure the lopsided victory for the Mets.

Full recap to follow.

GameThread Roll Call

Nice job by MetsFan4Decades; her effort in the GameThread embiggens us all.

1. MetsFan4Decades: 175
2. YuretRastin: 125
3. Kepler: 109
4. JR and the Off-Balance Shots: 84
5. stickguy: 69
6. Jets Mets Devils Nets 16: 68
7. deegie: 48
8. Knurk: 29
9. Must End The Suffering: 28
10. Aussie Mets Fan: 27