Jose Quintana pitched 6 2/3 effective innings, Francisco Alvarez hit a two-run double and Daniel Vogelbach added a late bases-clearing double as the host New York Mets beat the Cincinnati Reds 8-4 on Sunday.
Mark Vientos had three hits and an RBI for New York (69-80), which salvaged the finale of the three-game series.
The Mets are all but mathematically eliminated from the NL wild-card chase, but they played spoiler. Cincinnati (78-73) began the day tied for the NL’s third wild-card spot with the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Chicago Cubs were one-half game ahead of those teams and the Miami Marlins one-half game behind them.
Nick Senzel and Christian Encarnacion-Strand each homered and had two hits for the Reds, who had won five of their previous six games.
Francisco Lindor had a hit, two walks and two runs, and Brandon Nimmo, Ronny Mauricio and Tim Locastro had two hits apiece for the Mets, who had 13 overall to the Reds’ nine.
Quintana (3-5) gave up eight hits and one walk in his eighth quality start of the season. The left-hander struck out two. He left with two outs and two on in the seventh and New York leading 4-2, but Drew Smith got pinch hitter TJ Friedl to fly out to end the threat.
In his second start back from the COVID injured list, Reds rookie left-hander Brandon Williamson (4-5) again went only four innings. He surrendered three runs on six hits and a walk and lost his third straight decision. He struck out two.
The Mets erased a 1-0 deficit with a three-run third inning. Locastro and Nimmo singled, and after Williamson got a strikeout and a pop out, he walked Lindor. A wild pitch let Locastro tie the game, and Alvarez doubled to left for a 3-1 lead.
The teams traded runs in the fifth. Senzel hit his 12th home run, and Vientos singled in a run after one of three Reds’ errors prolonged the inning against reliever Carson Spiers.
The Mets blew the game open in the bottom of the seventh. They loaded the bases with none out on a hit, an error and a walk, and Vogelbach hit a shot off the base of the wall in center field to make it 7-2. Mauricio followed with an RBI single.
Encarnacion-Strand’s eighth homer of the season, a two-run shot, made it 8-4 in the eighth.
–Field Level Media