It was looking to be one of those days, with the Mets suffering from a four-run deficit in a scoreless effort through four and a half innings. R.A. Dickey was pitching just all right and Joey Votto dampened the Mets’ spirits with his sixth home run of the year in the fourth.
But all in all, everything looked this afternoon at Citi when it was all said and done. The Mets split their second straight two-game home series, this time against the Cincinnati Reds in a 9-4 win.
R.A. Dickey ultimately ended up tossing a quality start of six innings as only three of the four runs he allowed were earned. He was dialed in for his eight strikeouts, which lead to three scoreless innings by the Mets bullpen.
The Mets went on to score in each of their last four innings of the game. They got to Mat Latos for through three runs in the fifth and sixth innings, but really put things away in the eighth inning against Logan Ondrusek, a righty reliever who had been previously unscathed before today.
The hammer dropped in a similar fashion as last night for the Reds. The big inning came late for New York as Rob Johnson dropped down the most flawless bunt single you’ll ever see. That set the fuse for the Mets biggest inning of the young 2012 season. David Wright drove in Johnson with a double, and ultimately this game was long over when Ronny Cedeno drove the ball out of Citi’s former left field wall for his first home run in Mets threads.
All that production combined for a five run bottom of the eighth, all earned runs charged to Ondrusek in his first losing effort of the year. His ERA zipped up from 0.00 to 2.76. Additionally, the Mets became the first team to score on phenom Aroldis Chapman this year.
Lucas Duda and Daniel Murphy combined to go 6-11 today, and boy is David Wright continuosly “Wright hot.” Importantly here, it is excellent to see Duda shake off his struggles. He’s really coming around, if his power stroke can figure into the equation a bit more, the middle of the Mets lineup will regain some much-needed potency.
With a five-run cushion, Frank Francisco made a fury free appearance to lock things down in the ninth, not before walking Ryan Hanigan and serving up a double to Chris Heisey. But he finished things off forcing Zack Cozart to ground out to first.
Bobby Parnell was the winning pitcher of the afternoon, finally picking up a victory to show for the stunning stopping power he has developed this season. Parnell’s ERA has dropped to 2.00.
The eighth inning bedlam that the Mets produced completely counters last night, and with that the Mets get back on a winning track improving to 21-17. The Reds fall to 19-18 and continued to be overshadowed by the surprising St. Louis Cardinals.
Interleague play is now upon us, so naturally a trip north of the border is in order. The Mets head to Toronto to battle the Blue Jays in a series of funky start times, solid American League pitching, and the best darn uniforms in the business.
No typo here; the first game of the three-game set is scheduled for 7:07 ET with Jon Niese and Ricky Romero going heads up in a southpaw smackdown.
