CINCINNATI — The Mets this season have had no shortage of wild and frenzied games, and on Monday night they added their craziest one to the growing pile.
After Edwin Diaz blew his third consecutive save, a first for the closer in his six-year career, the Mets rallied to beat the Reds, 15-11, in a four-hour and 45-minute, extra-innings marathon at Great American Ballpark.
The Mets (49-42) took the lead for the fourth and final time in the 11th inning after Kevin Pillar mashed a three-run home run and Michael Conforto went back-to-back with a solo shot. The Amazin’s combined for a season-high seven home runs on Monday.
Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, Conforto (twice), Dominic Smith, James McCann and Pillar all homered in the hitter-friendly stadium that Mets broadcaster Gary Cohen perfectly described as “The Great American Bandbox.” Which is why it was all the more impressive that seven Mets pitchers combined to keep the Reds away from the long ball all night.
Anthony Banda, making his Mets debut, received the win for his terrific 1 1/3-inning effort in a tough spot, right after Diaz, who is having a nightmare month, wiped all the momentum away in the ninth.
The closer was called on for what would have been the final three outs with a one-run lead in the ninth, and Diaz couldn’t complete the job in a dreadful trend that dates back to July 11 in the Mets’ final game before the All-Star break. He was 19-for-20 in save opportunities before a trio of disastrous outings, shades of his 5.59 ERA debut season with the Mets in 2019.
No matter for the Mets, a club that has faced its share of adversity in a wild 2021 season. McCann was prepared to dig his team out of yet another hole. In the eighth inning, he came off the bench and mashed a pinch-hit, go-ahead, two-run home run to give the Mets a one-run lead. After Diaz’s botched ninth inning, McCann came up to the plate in the top of the 10th and again drove in the go-ahead run, this time on an RBI single.
The Mets’ eventual victory on Monday was hardly a sure thing after a back-and-forth game with four errors committed by their defenders, including three from Luis Guillorme alone. They trailed Cincinnati by four runs after the second inning before chipping away with dinger after dinger to complete their 18th come-from-behind win this year.
A week ago, Mets bench coach Dave Jauss was throwing to two-time Home Run Derby champion Pete Alonso at Coors Field. And in the last 36 hours, Jauss has managed two Mets games to victories — including yanking a fired up Luis Rojas away from umpire Jeremy Riggs in the first inning Sunday — after the skipper was ejected and then suspended through Tuesday.
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