Matt Reynolds Awakens the Dreary Mets

Terry Collins and the Mets made the best out of an awful situation with the Mets playing a late Sunday night game followed by an early Monday afternoon game. 

Bartolo Colon flew ahead of the team to make sure he was well rested.  Jose Reyes, Asdrubal Cabrera, and Yoenis Cespedes, i.e. veterans with some nagging injuries, were given a day off. Curtis Granderson was also given a day meaning the Mets were without the top four hitters in they’d lineup. With that in mind, an extremely tired Mets team went to their bench to ask them to win one. They did. 

Matt Reynolds, who took the red eye from Las Vegas, and Kelly Johnson each hit solo homers to give the Mets a 2-0 lead. 

That was enough for Colon who navigated his way out of trouble for most of the day. He was aided by two double plays in the first few innings. Twice he stranded a runner on third with no outs. His best feat was in the sixth when he stranded Hernan Iribarren at third after a lead off triple. This was in part due to his unwillingness to test Jay Bruce‘s arm. Coincidentally, Bruce’s throw would go to the backstop. 

His final line was six innings, five hits, no runs, none earned, one walk, and two strikeouts. 

Fortunately, he gave the Mets some much needed depth with both Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia unavailable. 

On the bullpen front, Hansel Robles had another good outing, but Jerry Blevins struggled. Blevins would get bailed out by Fernando Salas in the eighth. Salas would finish out the game. 

Still, even with the win, it’s not like the Mets were crisp. Reds starter Robert Stephenson struck out nine in 5.1 innings. The only Mets player with a multiple hits off the Reds stater was Wilmer Flores, who no one was quite sure what he was doing on the bases:

In the first, he was thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double. In the fourth, he was thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple. Finally, in the sixth, he had the good sense to stop at first bases much to the delight of Phoebe:

The Mets put the game on ice in the seventh. Reynolds hit an RBI single scoring Travis d’Arnaud, who walked to start the rally. Cabrera pinch hit for Colon, and hit an RBI single scoring James Loney. Alejandro De Aza capped off the rally with a sacrifice fly scoring Reynolds making the score 5-0. 

While it was Flores that was perfect at the plate, it was Reynolds who was the offensive star of the game. Reynolds would go 2-3 with two runs, two RBI, and a home run. With the insane scheduling and the veterans’ nagging injuries, the Mets needed someone to step up. It was an exhausted Reynolds who stepped up and powered the Mets offensively. 

With that Reynolds and the entire Mets team earned a well needed rest. 

Game Notes: This was Bruce’s first game back in Cincinnati since the trade, and the team had a pre-game ceremony honoring him. Bruce would go 0-3 with two strikeouts leaving two men on base. 

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