CINCINNATI — Edwin Díaz surveyed the scene in Friday night’s ninth inning and realized he had been here before.
Bases loaded, nobody out, game on the line.
“I knew I had two choices: Win the game or lose the game,” Díaz said after the Mets beat the Reds 5-4 at Great American Ball Park. “I made the right choice: Win the game.”
All it took was a new pair of spikes — which he changed into on the field with one out in the inning and the bases loaded — for Díaz to finish the job, holding the Mets’ one-run lead. He struck out Elly De La Cruz before racing to cover first base for the final out on Gavin Lux’s slow grounder to Luisangel Acuña.
The Houdini act started a batter ahead of De La Cruz with a strikeout of Noelvi Marte.
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Until he walked TJ Friedl to load the bases, Díaz said he was slipping on the mound. What he didn’t realize was the front spike was missing on his left shoe.
The new pair of spikes helped cure his allergic reaction to the strike zone (Díaz walked two batters in the inning) and got the Mets a victory to begin this key series that holds NL wild-card race implications.
“After I changed it, I started feeling better,” Díaz said.
The Reds, desperate for wins to stay afloat in their pursuit of the NL’s third wild card, fell six games behind the Mets in that race. The Giants, sandwiched in between the two teams, trail the Mets by four games.
The Mets got a strong bullpen performance overall, as Ryne Stanek, Brooks Raley, Tyler Rogers and Díaz combined for 3 ²/₃ scoreless innings behind a mediocre David Peterson start.
Stanek, who had been relegated mostly to low-leverage situations after a brutal August, entered with two runners on base in the sixth and walked a batter before escaping to preserve the Mets’ 5-4 lead.
“The whole bullpen, but Stanek in particular, I’m proud of him,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We’re going to need all of those guys, and today they stepped up big time.”
Peterson survived 5 ¹/₃ innings in which he allowed four earned runs on seven hits with four strikeouts and one walk. It was hardly Peterson’s best but a step in the right direction after his clunker against Miami last weekend that ended after two innings with eight runs allowed.
The Mets jumped on left-hander Andrew Abbott for three runs in the first inning. Mark Vientos brought in the first run with an infield single, and Brandon Nimmo’s sacrifice fly — a ball on which center fielder Friedl reached over the fence to steal a home run — gave the Mets a 2-0 lead. Starling Marte’s ensuing single extended the lead. The rally started with Francisco Lindor’s leadoff walk and Juan Soto’s single. Soto also stole third base ahead of Vientos’ RBI roller.
Vientos homered leading off the third to give the Mets a 4-0 lead. It was the first blast of the month for Vientos, who hit eight in August after delivering just six in the season’s first three months.
Nimmo went for a sliding catch on Friedl’s sinking line drive in the third, and the ball bounced behind him for a double to put runners on second and third. Noelvi Marte followed with a sacrifice fly that decreased the Reds’ deficit to 4-1.
The Mets got the run back in the fourth on consecutive doubles by Lindor and Soto. It was the 92nd RBI of the season for Soto, who is second on the team behind Pete Alonso (113) in that category.
Peterson struggled through the fourth, allowing a two-run double to Tyler Stephenson before Ke’Bryan Hayes’ sacrifice fly sliced the Mets’ lead to 5-4. Austin Hays and Spencer Steer singled in succession to start the rally. Nimmo’s throw home beat Stephenson by plenty on Hayes’ fly to left, but Francisco Alvarez was late in applying the tag — a call that was upheld following a Mets replay challenge.
Peterson said it was “huge” to win the first game in this September series against a team chasing the Mets.
“We obviously know where they are at,” Peterson said. “But at the same time, we’re not really focused on that.”