CINCINNATI (AP) — Hunter Greene tied a season high with 12 strikeouts and the Cincinnati Reds beat the Mets 3-2 Sunday to take two of three from New York and move back above .500.
New York’s Brandon Sproat (0-1) held the Reds hitless through 5 1/3 innings in his major league debut before allowing three consecutive hits, Noelvi Marte’s single, Ely De La Cruz’s tiebreaking RBI double and Austin Hays’ run-scoring single.
Hays had a sacrifice fly in the fourth that scored Marte, who walked, stole second and advanced on a groundout.
Greene (6-4) allowed one hit in seven innings, a third-inning home run by Brett Baty on a slider. He threw 30 pitches of 100 mph or higher and increased his season total to 346, most among starting pitchers.
Juan Soto hit his 38th homer, a ninth-inning drive off Tony Santillan, who got his fifth save when Starling Marte hit a double-play grounder with two on.
New York (76-67) leads Cincinnati and San Francisco (both 72-71) for the last NL wild card.
Sproat, a 24-year-old right-hander, became the third Mets pitching prospect to debut in recent weeks after Nolan McLean (Aug. 16) and Jonah Tong (Aug. 29). It was the first time three Mets starting pitcher debuted in a 21-day span.
Sproat allowed three runs, three hits and four walks in six innings with seven strikeouts. He averaged 96.1 mph with 11 fastballs and 95.9 mph with 24 sinkers, also throwing 19 each of curveballs and sweepers along with eight changeups and seven sliders. Sproat threw 58 of 88 pitches for strikes.
Key moment
Marte broke up Sproat’s no-hit bid in the sixth with a single to right on a first-pitch, up-and-in sinker.
Key stat
Sproat was the 45th Mets pitcher this season, tying the big league record set by Miami last year.
Up next
Mets: McLean (4-0, 1.37 ERA) starts Monday’s series opener at Philadelphia, which starts RHP Aaron Nola (3-8, 6.78)
Reds: LHP Nick Lodolo (8-7, 3.22) will be on the mound for Monday’s series opener at San Diego.
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