Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

The Mets took on the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday night looking to take the three-game series at Great American Ball Park. After a 7-4 win in the series opener on Monday, the Mets’ offense was shut down on Tuesday night by Nick Lodolo and four Reds’ relievers leading to a disappointing 1-0 loss in Max Scherzer’s return. David Peterson started for the Mets against the hard-throwing Graham Ashcraft for Cincinnati.

After a long night of struggling to find the big hit, the Mets came back in the ninth on an RBI double by Starling Marte, and exploded for five runs in the tenth with a three-run home run by Brandon Nimmo to take the rubber match of the series 8-3. With the win, the Mets moved to 51-31 and maintained their 2.5 game lead over the Braves in the National League East.

Nimmo started the game by making Mets history. He was hit by a pitch for the 50th time in his career, tying him for the most in Mets history with Michael Conforto. After Pete Alonso singled on a hard ground ball that took a hop that Matt Reynolds couldn’t handle, Jeff McNeil broke the Mets’ scoring drought with an RBI single to right field to put the Mets ahead 1-0.

The Mets weren’t able to tack onto their lead despite a lead off single by Eduardo Escobar in the second, and the Reds made them pay by tacking the lead back in the bottom half of the inning. Reynolds drew a one-out walk before Nick Senzel blasted his second home run of the series to left field to put the Reds in front 2-1.

In the third, McNeil came up to bat with another opportunity to drive in a run after base hits from Marte and Alonso. This time around, Ashcraft won the battle and got an inning-ending double-play from McNeil.

After the Mets failed to get even, the Reds added on to their lead in the bottom of the third. Brandon Drury hit his second single of the night to lead off the inning and stole second. He moved to third on a wild-pitch, but that made no difference when Kyle Farmer hit a ground-rule double down the right field line. Peterson was able to avoid further trouble by striking out Donovan Solano and Reynolds to strand Farmer at second base.

Dominic Smith led off the fourth inning with a double off the wall in center field to quickly give the Mets another scoring chance. After Escobar popped out and Luis Guillorme grounded out, it seemed like the Mets were going to waste another scoring chance like they had been doing too much of over the past two games. Tomás Nido, who has been terrific with runners in scoring position all season, came up and blooped a broken-bat single to right field to cut the Reds lead to 3-2. Nimmo followed with a single of his own, but Marte grounded out to strand two more Mets and end the inning.

Peterson had not been sharp over the first three innings, and that did not change at the start of the bottom of the fourth inning. After not walking a batter over 13 innings in his last two starts, Peterson walked the first two batters to start the inning. Fortunately for him and the Mets, Nido and Lindor combined to make a terrific play to pick off Senzel at second base. Peterson followed by walking the nine-hitter Michael Papierski, Peterson’s fifth walk in just 3 1/3 innings. He struck out Mike Moustakas before being lifted for Adonis Medina. Medina struck out Drury to end the inning and leave the two Reds’ runners on base.

In his 3 2/3 innings, Peterson allowed three runs on four hits and five walks while striking out seven.

Just as they had in the first four innings, the Mets seemed poised to even the score in the fifth when Alonso laced a one-out double off the wall. McNeil hit a ball up the middle that looked destined for center field, but Reynolds, playing a deep second base, caught the line drive up the middle to rob McNeil of a game-tying hit. Smith followed with a fly-out to right field to end the inning and leave another Met runner on base.

After a 1-2-3 bottom of the fifth with two strikeouts from Medina, the Mets’ offense went back to work. Guillorme hit a one-out single to give the Mets their tenth hit of the game, and Nido followed with his second long drive of the game, but just like his first, it was run down in the outfield for a loud out. Nimmo grounded out to end the inning and leave the eighth Met runner on base to end an inning.

Medina took the mound for his third inning of work in the bottom of the sixth. After striking out Reynolds, he allowed his first hit of the night to Senzel. Senzel tried to stretch his hit to left field into a double, but McNeil made a perfect throw to second to get the second out of the inning. Albert Almora Jr. popped out into foul territory to get Medina through another scoreless inning.

Each of Alonso’s first three hits were well over 100 MPH, but in the seventh, he hit an 81.6 MPH single for his fourth hit of the game. It was Alonso’s third four-hit game of his career and his first since July 29, 2020. The Mets’ trend of stranding runners continued though when McNeil grounded out to strand Alonso after his two out single.

Medina started the bottom of the seventh and retired the first two batters he faced, but he walked Drury on a borderline 3-2 pitch before being pulled for Colin Holderman. Holderman retired Tommy Pham to end the inning.

The Mets were held hitless in an inning for the first time in the eighth inning, and went into the ninth still trailing by one run. With one out, Nimmo gave the Mets hope by hitting a single to left field for the teams’ twelfth hit of the night. After struggling throughout the night, Marte got the big hit the Mets desperately needed with a double down the left field line to tie the game.

With the go-ahead run in scoring position and only one out, the Mets were in position to get take a late lead with the middle of their lineup coming up. Both Francisco Lindor and Alonso aggressively went after first pitch fastballs, and both made easy first pitch outs to strand another Met baserunner with the game still tied.

Adam Ottavino, who has been close to untouchable since the beginning of June, came in and retired the side in order with two strikeouts to send the game to extra innings.

Once the game got to extra innings, the Mets’ offense exploded. With one out and Ender Inciarte on second base pinch-running for Alonso, Dom Smith ripped his second double of the game to give the Mets their first lead since they led 1-0 going into the second. After Escobar flew out and Guillorme was intentionally walked, James McCann came up for his first at-bat of the night after coming into the game in the ninth. McCann ripped an RBI single into left field to give the Mets a huge insurance run. Nimmo followed with a three-run home run to break the game open and extend the lead to 8-3.

Despite not being a save opportunity, the Mets went to Edwin Diaz in the tenth to close out the series. Diaz struck out the side to finish the game and the series win.

Player of the Game: Brandon Nimmo

Nimmo put his name in the Mets’ record book in his first at-bat with a hit-by-pitch. He followed that by going 3-5 with a home run, three RBI’s and three runs scored. His hit in the ninth inning started the rally to tie the game, and his home run in the tenth put the exclamation point on another Mets comeback win. An early July game against the last place Reds may not look like a big game, but Nimmo’s big day to pick up the struggling offense and prevent a second straight disappointing loss could be a big lift for the team going into two big series over the next week.

On Deck

The Mets will begin a four-game series with the Miami Marlins on Thursday at 7:10 p.m. ET at Citi Field. Trevor Williams (1-5, 4.34 ERA) will make the start for the Mets against Daniel Castano (1-1, 2.42 ERA) for Miami. Williams is coming off a rough outing that saw him allow five runs in 3 2/3 innings on Saturday against the Texas Rangers. Castano allowed just two runs over seven innings in his June 26 start against the Mets in Miami, and he allowed one earned run in five innings in his most recent start on Saturday in Washington.

The game will be televised on SNY, and the radio call will be on WCBS 880.