Mets drop series to Reds as Hunter Greene dominates them in series finale

Given the opportunity to effectively eliminate the Reds as one of their competitors for a Wild Card spot in the National League, the Mets failed this weekend. This afternoon, the three runs that Brandon Sproat gave up in his six innings of work in his major league debut proved to be too much, as Hunter Greene racked up twelve strikeouts against the Mets and gave up just one run in seven innings of work. In the end, the Mets lost the rubber game of the series by a 3-2 score and lost two of three in the series.

That leaves the Reds just four games back of the Mets, which very much keeps their playoff chances alive. And the Giants, Diamondbacks, and Cardinals haven’t gone away yet, either, making it imperative for the Mets to bounce back from yet another disappointing series when they arrive in Philadelphia tomorrow. The race for the division title is almost certainly over, but the Mets cannot afford to let the teams chasing them get much closer than this.

As for Sproat, his debut was mostly quite good. He didn’t allow a hit through five innings, though he did give up his first run on a sac fly in the fourth. At the time, that only tied the game, as Brett Baty had hit a solo home run in the third for the Mets’ lone run against Greene.

In the bottom of the sixth, Elly De La Cruz doubled in a run against Sproat to put the Reds ahead, and Austin Hays singled to bring him home with what turned out to be Cincinnati’s decisive third run of the afternoon.

Sproat finished six innings and gave up three runs—all earned—with seven strikeouts and four walks. That’s an above-average start by the standards of the Mets’ rotation over the past few months, and it’s nothing to sneeze at even in isolation. While Kodai Senga tries to figure things out in Syracuse, it was encouraging to see Sproat pitch pretty well in a big spot.

Juan Soto drilled a solo home run in the ninth inning to pull the Mets within one, but the Mets squandered an opportunity to at least tie the game after that. With runner on first and second and just one out, Starling Marte grounded into a double play to end the game.

The odds say that the Mets are incredibly like to make the playoffs, but it sure doesn’t feel like they’ll make it easy as they continue to have a bunch of stops and starts.