The New York Mets entered play looking to stop the skid and break up a five game losing streak and they did just that today with their 4-2 win against the Reds.

The Mets started off well with Huascar Brazobán working around trouble followed by a solo home run from Juan Soto in the bottom of the first inning off left-handed pitcher Andrew Abbott.

Eric Wagaman‘s first hit as a Met was smacked 110.1 miles per hour and 415 feet for a solo home run. After six straight games where the Mets failed to score more than two runs, Carson Benge drove in Brett Baty for the Mets third run on a single to right field. Carson Benge also drove in Jared Young for the Mets fourth run.

Pitcher Jonah Tong entered the game in the second inning after Brazobán opened the game. Over his last few appearances he has completely reworked how he pitches, dropping his arm angle around 12 degrees in order to get more horizontal break on his pitches. This continued into today’s game where he showed significantly more horizontal break than he did in most of his games at Triple-A.

His control was not as strong in this outing walking four batters and only striking out one. He was not as dominant as his last outing, but was still very effective. He pitched 3.2 innings and his only run given up was unearned due to an error.

Tobias Myers finished the fifth inning for Tong, getting the final out in one pitch but got into trouble in the sixth inning. Brooks Raley had to come in to bail him out and while he gave up one run on a weak infield grounder he held the lead. He got the first two outs in the seventh inning before walking Tyler Stephenson. Similarly to Myers, Luke Weaver came in and got the last out on one pitch, a hard hit ball caught by A.J. Ewing.

A.J. Ewing impressed in the field today showing off his plus glove making multiple tough plays including a diving catch to get the final out in the seventh inning. Ewing is among the fastest runners in the game, has a plus throwing arm, and has plus range.

Citi Field is not an easy outfield to man, and he has had some growing pains learning the ballpark but he has really been coming into his own defensively. Outs he made included a 102.8 miles per hour .800 xBA out and a 103.3 miles per hour and .640 xBA out smacked to the center fielder.

Doing his best Edwin Diaz impression, Devin Williams walked the bases loaded and secured the save by striking out Spencer Steer, Dane Myers, and Blake Dunn. As Gary Cohen said, he bent but he did not break.

Mets win 4-2.

Player of the Game

Benge had two very clutch hits driving in runs in the fifth and seventh innings. The seventh inning one was very impressive because it was on a 99 miles per hour fastball.

Benge adjusted his swing in the offseason and that led him to struggle heavily against fastballs, running a whiff rate against velocity over 30% the first few weeks of the season. He has been working with the hitting coaches on changing his load and bat path to fix this hole and while it is not fully fixed, the work has been paying off. His season whiff rate against velocity is down to 21.6%.

Up Next

The Mets will once again face the Marlins’ 27-year-old breakout starter Max Meyer. Meyer is in the middle of a breakout and dominated the Mets in his last outing against them. Meyer has a 2.52 ERA and 1.08 WHIP on the season.

On the mound again against Meyer for the Mets will be Freddy Peralta. He has a 3.52 ERA and 1.27 WHIP across 11 starts with 63 strikeouts.

The game will start at 7:10 PM and be broadcast on WPIX.