The Mets won Monday night in Cincinnati, but that statement alone does no justice for how entertaining their games have been lately, both in favor of and against them.
On Friday night, there was a benches-clearing incident.
On Saturday, they blew a six-run lead by allowing nine runs in the final two innings, including a walk-off grand slam.
On Sunday, they gave up six runs in the first inning to the Pirates -- including a pretty embarrassing mishap -- but still came back and won that game.
That brings us to Monday, which finished with a 15-11 Mets win over the Reds in 11 innings.
Things started out swimmingly for the Mets. Brandon Nimmo singled and then Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil went for back-to-back homers. That 3-0 lead was fleeting, however. In a frame that included a booted double play and hit batsman, the Mets coughed up four runs to the Reds.
Another Reds batter was hit by a pitch in the second and there were two more errors. By the time the inning was over, it was 7-3 Reds.
The Mets chipped away and tied it at seven with a Dom Smith solo shot in the fifth. The Reds took back the lead in the seventh, but then James McCann came through with the clutch two-run homer in the eighth.
Enter Edwin Diaz. He was 19 of 20 in converting saves through July 10, but his last two outings were blown saves in which he allowed six runs on six hits with two walks in just two innings. It included the aforementioned walk-off grand slam. Sure enough, he issued the leadoff walk and the runner went on to score on a two-out double from Jesse Winker.
The Mets scored in the top of the 10th, but blew another save in the bottom half. In the top of the 11th, the offense decided to stop messing around. The big blow was Kevin Pillar's three-run shot, which was immediately followed by a Michael Conforto shot.
In all, the Mets plated five that inning. Since nothing is ever overly easy, the Reds scored one and then had two runners on when Nick Castellanos shot a deep drive to right field, but it ended up caught on the warning track and the next batter struck out for the Mets victory.
Amazingly, the Mets hit seven home runs while the Reds didn't hit any. The Reds had five doubles and the Mets only had one. The Mets were able to win a game in which they had four errors, including three from fill-in shortstop Luis Guillorme. The Mets used seven pitchers while the Reds used eight. The teams combined for 34 hits. Both benches were emptied out.
Just another day at the office for the second-half Mets, eh?
The Mets now lead the NL East by 2 1/2 games.
