Mets shake off Edwin Diaz blown save, mount immediate response to avoid sweep against Reds

NEW YORK — For the Mets, concern gave way to temporary relief on Sunday afternoon.

When the lineup was revealed before the club's series finale, Pete Alonso's name was noticeably absent as they looked to snap a three-game losing streak.

By the seventh inning at Citi Field, the Mets had a lead, and Alonso, who had been dealing with a right hand contusion, found his rightful place at first base. The uneasiness surfaced again later when Edwin Diaz gave up the tying run in the top of the eighth inning, but the Mets finally punched back.

Juan Soto slid in under a tag at home plate on a ground ball to the right side in the bottom of the eighth inning, and the Mets grabbed a gritty 3-2 victory over the Reds in front of a sold-out crowd of 42,981 fans on Sunday at Citi Field.

"There's going to be stretches where it's hard," manager Carlos Mendoza said. "We've got guys that are going through it right now, and you have to find a way to create runs, put pressure on the defense, try and take the extra 90 feet when you can, and I thought we did that today."

The winning run was set up by a Soto walk and a Jeff McNeil double into the right-center field gap off Brent Suter before Luis Torrens forced the issue with a sharp ground ball to Reds second baseman Matt McLain.

After Diaz's second blown save of the season, Ryne Stanek picked him up with a scoreless ninth.

The Mets found what had been missing in the midst of their abbreviated losing streak, which stretched back to last Sunday against the Royals. David Peterson twirled a quality start, and the offense manufactured the timely run.

"I think you get to this time of year and into the dog days and wins don't come easy, and they don't ever come easy in this league," Stanek said. "You just grind out as many as you can and play as good baseball as you can and kind of let the chips fall where they may."

Those factors helped the Mets improve to 56-44 and get back within a half game of the Phillies in the race for the top spot in the National League East.

Bottom of the Mets' lineup provides the lift

New York Mets center fielder Tyrone Taylor (15) scores a run during the third inning against the Cincinnati Reds on July 20, 2025, at Citi Field.

In a series where offense had been hard to come by for the Mets, they manufactured just enough to avoid the sweep on Sunday afternoon.

In the bottom of the third inning, Tyrone Taylor reached on an infield single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Luisangel Acuña. He scored when Brandon Nimmo poked an RBI single through the right side of the infield.

"When we are able to turn the lineup over, that's going to be the key, when you get contributions from those guys down in the bottom," Mendoza said. "I feel like those guys continue to do a good job."

The Mets were working hard to grab any possible advantage and moved ahead in the fifth. Brett Baty dropped in a leadoff single and stole second base. Then, Acuña tagged an RBI double over the head of Connor Joe in left field to make it 2-1. It was Acuña's first extra-base hit since May 2.

Soto, who had been 1-for-11 with a home run, five strikeouts and one walk in the series before his last at-bat on Sunday, set the tone with a leadoff walk in the eighth. McNeil's double opened the door for the Mets to mount an immediate response. Soto timed up his primary and secondary leads perfectly to score on Torrens' sharp ground ball.

"Any way that you can help a team to win a ball game, it's great," Soto said. "I know the hitting isn't going my way right now, but I try my best to help the team on defense, running or any way I can do it."

Mark Vientos fills in for Pete Alonso

Before the game, Mark Vientos admitted that he had not taken a whole lot of reps at first base before learning late Saturday night that he would be drawing the assignment at the position.

In his 10th career start at first base and first since July 14, 2024, Vientos showed some rust in the early going Sunday. In the opening at-bat of the game, a throw from Acuña's throw drifted a little low and wide, Vientos was unable to handle it, and the Reds then knocked back-to-back singles to open up a 1-0 lead.

Vientos settled in from there.

He may not be called upon there for long, with Alonso optimistic that he will be able to return to the lineup on Monday against the Angels.

"Yesterday after the game I was pretty worried, but I had a great night of recovery, thankfully," Alonso said. "This morning, threw a ton of different treatment at it. It responded really well. If we keep trending in the right direction then we're going to be in a really good spot."

David Peterson continues to dazzle

After allowing the unearned run in the first inning, Peterson worked through his second stretch of traffic in the second inning. He allowed a single, issued a walk and hit a batter with two outs but got McLain to swing through a slider to end the threat.

Peterson dialed it in from there, facing the minimum 12 batters between the third and sixth innings as the Mets moved ahead 2-1. During that stretch, the Mets left-hander allowed one baserunner — a leadoff single to Joe in the fifth — but erased him on a double play in the next at-bat.

"I think just kind of seeing what I was doing on the video versus what I was feeling and then just kind of getting back to where I wanted to be mechanically," Peterson said of his in-game turnaround.

With his third straight quality start, this time striking out four over six innings and allowing only four hits and one walk, Peterson lowered his ERA to 2.90. It was a deep outing that has been hard to come by for the Mets in recent days.

"You notice it when we have certain guys being used and you want to be able to try and get as deep as you can to get it to those guys later in the game," Peterson said. "It crosses your mind, but I think every start you're trying to go out there and get as deep as you can."

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Mets shake off Edwin Diaz blown save, mount immediate response to avoid sweep against Reds