Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

Marcus Stroman looked strong on Sunday through his first three innings of work in the Mets’ series finale against the Cincinnati Reds. He held his opponents scoreless before giving up a run in the fourth and three runs in the sixth to ultimately earn the loss.

Stroman’s slider was the story for the right-handed pitcher. It was the one pitch he had working on Sunday afternoon. He was forcing swings and misses with a slider that was reaching the mid to upper 80’s on the radar gun.

The fourth inning is where Stroman started to struggle. With two outs he gave up a solo home run to Max Schrock (who ended up with a career-high five-hit game) to give the Reds a 1-0 lead over the Mets. He then gave up a single to Eugenio Suarez before getting the last out of the inning on beautiful relay that involved Kevin Pillar, Javier Baez, and Tomas Nido to throw out Suarez, who was trying to score on a Tyler Naquin double.

Things really unraveled for 30-year-old hurler in the sixth. He gave up a lead-off double to Jesse Winker, followed by a triple by Kyle Farmer to center field that scored Winker to extend the Reds’ lead to 2-0. Stroman then gave up a sacrifice fly to right field that was deep enough to score Farmer and extend Cincinnati’s lead to 3-0 with one out in the sixth.

Stroman collected the second out with a fly out of Surarez before walking Naquin, which ended his outing. Luis Rojas replaced Stroman on the mound with Miguel Castro, who proceeded to walk the first hitter he faced to load the bases. He then walked the opposing pitcher to force in a run before striking out Jonathan India to officially close the book on Stro. His final line included four earned runs on eight hits, one walk, and four strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings.

His record worsened to 7-10 on the season to go along with his 2.80 ERA. When asked about his outing, Stroman didn’t seem too rattled as he looked ahead to his next start:

The right-hander may have not had his best stuff, but he did enough to keep his club in the ballgame. It’s hard to win when the offense can only muster one run on three hits. If everything stays on track, it’s looking like Stroman could open up New York’s series in Philadelphia against the Phillies on Friday night.