Mandatory Credit: David Kohl-USA TODAY Sports
The never say die New York Mets struck again on Monday night in Cincinnati.
After Brandon Nimmo led off the game with a single through the shift, Pete Alonso crushed a two run shot over the left field fence. A few pitches later, Jeff McNeil cracked his first homer since May to increase the lead to 3-0 in the first.
The Mets defense then spotted the Reds seven runs and an early 7-3 lead, but it didn’t take long before the comeback was on.
J.D. Davis led off the top of the fourth with a single to left field, the red-hot Michael Conforto then worked the count and crushed a two-run shot of his own to deep right field. Alonso added a run on a two-out RBI single, but the Mets were held there as they stranded a pair and still trailed by a run.
However, that lead didn’t last long, as an inning later Dominic Smith joined in on the fun. The lefty crushed his tenth ‘Dom-Bomb’ of the year to right center field to even things up at seven.
After the Reds took the lead on a Jesse Winker RBI double, Mets acting man anger Dave Jauss pushed the right buttons in the eighth. Michael Conforto worked the count full and lined an opposite field singled, then Jauss sent up the power bat of James McCann up in place of Tomas Nido.
McCann, of course, made Jauss look like a genius, as he crushed a go-ahead two-run shot to make it 9-8 Mets. Edwin Diaz‘s struggles continued, as he blew his third consecutive save in the bottom of the ninth and then both teams traded runs in the tenth.
McCann added another clutch run scoring hit for the Mets, and Tyler Naquin evened things up for the Reds.
Then in the eleventh, the Mets put this thing away for good. Clutch singles from Nimmo and McNeil gave the Mets an 11-10 lead. Kevin Pillar then came off the bench as the last position player available, and crushed a three run homer to make it 14-10 Mets.
Conforto followed that up with the Mets’ second back-to-back homers of the game. The sweet-swinging lefty went deep to dead center for his second homer of the night. Trevor May then came on, pitching for the third time in as many days, and secured the save and the 15-11 thrilling victory for the Mets.
Postgame, the veteran Pillar commended how each and every guy on this team fought and had each others backs, as they have all season long, in the thrilling victory.
“I keep using the quote ‘we’re build for this’ and tonight was a perfect example. We went through every guy on the bench, we had two new pitchers brought up, we had some guys in the bullpen unavailable and no one flinched.. Guys picked each other up, that’s what this team is all about,” Pillar said.
The Mets now have 12 home runs over their past three game, and they set a new season-high with seven home runs in Monday night’s offensive explosion. It marked the fourth time in franchise history they accomplished such a feat.
You knew it was just a matter of time before this offense turned the corner and started producing as expected. They’ll look to stay hot behind right-handed spot starter Robert Stock as they take on lefty Wade Miley on Tuesday night at Great American Ballpark.
