Mets Drop Magic Number to 3 with 6-4 Win Over Reds

The New York Mets now have the National League East title in their sights following a 6-4 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday but are resisting any temptation to start celebrating.

The victory, combined with Washington’s loss to Baltimore, reduced the Mets’ magic number to three for clinching the NL East crown. It’s the third time this season they’ve lost at least five in a row. “You’ve got to go make quality pitches and don’t change too much”.

It stayed that way until the third inning when the Mets cashed in for three runs in the frame. “He’s getting back into pretty good shape”.

A pair of back-to-back one-out singles put a runner in scoring position in the fifth, and Phillips, who homered off Matz to begin the Met rookie’s career, notched his second RBI with a hard single to left to slice the deficit to a run. David Wright has driven in a run in four straight games from the No. 2 hole and is batting.343 in his last nine, but it’s Murphy who’s gained his manager’s attention by batting.462 with seven extra-base hits in his last seven games. New York totaled 12 hits with Yoenis Cespedes and Lucas Duda driving in a pair of runs while Daniel Murphy drove in a run and scored twice. In an alternate universe devoid of Clayton Kershaw, Zach Grenkie, and obsession over pitcher wins (deGrom’s only got 13 of those), young Jacob could quite possibly be running away with this.

Tempers flared in the eighth inning when plate umpire Adam Hamari called a quick pitch on Hansel Robles and awarded an automatic ball to Jay Bruce. But, Mets closer Jeurys Familia shut the door in the ninth for his 42nd save.

New York went 3-6 on its recent homestand and the bats were stymied for the most part.

New York Mets Curtis Granderson gets congratulated by Luczs Duda, right, after scoring against the Cincinnati Reds in the seventh inning of a baseball game in Cincinnati, Thursday, September 24, 2015. After all, the 1982 team, the only Reds team in history to lose more than 100 games (61-101), only finished 28 games out of first place. Reds rookies have started a major league-record 54 consecutive games since the club traded Johnny Cueto and Mike Leake in July. He didn’t get into the game. In fact, since August 1st, Syndergaard has seen his ERA rise almost one full run, and has gone 48.2 IP with a 4.62 ERA in 8 starts, allowing opponents a.780 OPS. Matz allowed just two runs in 7 innings against the Reds on June 28. It was the first game action for Uribe since Sunday, when he was injured while diving for a ground ball in the third inning of a game against the Yankees. DeSclafani (9-11, 3.79) allowed five runs – four earned – and eight hits in 4 1-3 innings after going 2-1 with a 2.08 ERA in his previous four.