McCoy: Reds can’t complete 9th inning comeback, fall 6 games back of Mets in NL wild card race

They lost, 5-4, to the New York Mets and most likely their playoff aspirations died with the ninth-inning futility.

They are six games behind the Mets and two games behind the San Francisco Giants with 21 games left.

Their hopes are slim and none and both appear to have left town.

When the ninth began, Mets closer Edwin Diaz, baseball’s highest paid relief pitcher (five years, $102 million) took the mound.

He has blown two saves all year and one was to the Reds in New York July 20.

Ke’Bryan Hayes opened the inning with a solid single to center.

Diaz was all over the place with his pitches. He walked Matt McLain on a 3-and-2 offering. He didn’t come anywhere near home plate on TJ Friedl and walked him on four pitches.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Bases loaded. No outs.

Diaz went to 3-and-2 on Noelvi Marte and threw ball four high and inside. . .but Marte swung and missed.

Bases loaded. One out.

Diaz went to 1-and-2 on Elly De La Cruz and lost a spike on his shoe. Time was called while Diaz changed shoes. He threw ball two with his new shoes, then De La Cruz stood gaping at a 99 miles an hour fastball right down Sesame Street. Strike three.

Bases loaded. Two outs.

Gavin Lux pulled a foul ball inches outside the first base bag. Then he grounded one between first and second. First baseman Pete Alonso dove and missed it.

Second baseman Luisangel Acuna skidded to his knees in the grass, picked it up and fired a game-ending throw to Diaz, covering first base.

Bases loaded. Three outs. Game over. Season over.

“Tough loss, obviously,” Matt McLain told reporters after the game. “We’ve gotta win these games and we didn’t, we came up short today.

“We just missed a couple of big hits. That’s how you win these tight games against teams that are as good as you. Gotta go out there and have some big hits,” he added.

Teams as good as you? Well, the Mets are 76-65 and the Reds slipped below .500 at 70-71.

The Reds had an opportunity in the eighth, too, when Lux pinch-hit leading off and reached on an infield hit. But Austin Hays struck out.

Spencer Steer lined one to right that would have scored Lux, but it touched down two inches in foul territory. Then he pop fouled to the catcher. Pinch-hitter Will Benson popped to third.

Benson was pinch-hitting for catcher Tyler Stephenson, playing his first game off the injured list. Stephenson had doubled home two runs in the fourth.

Right-hander Tyler Rogers was pitching the eighth, a submariner whose knuckles scrape the ground when he delivers his pitches, making it extremely difficult for right-handed hitters.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Reds manager Tito Francona was asked by reporters after the game why he pinch-hit for Stephenson after his two-run double and first he mentioned the difficult right-handers have against Rogers and added, “Stephenson is 1 for 7 against Rogers.”

The obviously fatigued Andrew Abbott started for the Reds and when he walked Francisco Lindor on four pitches to open the game it was a hint that it would not be his day.

The Mets scored three runs in the first and made it 4-0 in the third when Mark Vientos led the inning with a 427-foot home run that nearly crashed into the Toyota sign halfway up the right field stands.

The Reds retrieved that run in the bottom of the third on a single by McLain, a double by Friedl and Marte’s sacrifice fly.

New York made it 5-1 in the fourth on back-to-back two-out doubles by Lindor and Juan Soto.

Stephenson’s two-run double highlighted the three-run Cincinnati fourth to make it 5-4.

And neither team scored after that.

Abbott made it through 4 2/3 innings on five runs and nine hits, then Connor Phillips, Nick Martinez and Emilo Pagan held the Mets to no runs and one hit over the final 4 1/3 innings.

But Abbott’s ineffectiveness early was difficult to overcome. He is 0-5 over his last nine starts and the Reds are 2-7 in those games.

The Reds played flawless defense to keep the Mets from adding runs. They made four above-and-beyond plays.

TJ Friedl went above the center field wall to stop Brandon Nimmo’s home run bid. Left fielder Austin Hays saved a run with a diving catch on Starling Marte’s hard, fast-sinking line drive.

Second baseman McLain, the shortest player on both teams, made a leaping catch of a line drive. Spencer Steer, one of baseball’s best first basemen, snagged a bullet headed for the right field corner and turned it into an out.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

But the offense didn’t match the defense.

New York leadoff hitter Francisco Lindor was on base five times with three walks, a single and he was hit by a pitch. He scored two runs.

Juan Soto, the No. 2 hitter and New York’s $765 Million Man, was on base three times with a single, RBI double and a walk.

But the Reds embarrassed Pete Alonso. He went 0 for 5 and stranded seven runners. In the sixth, Connor Phillips walked two straight batters with one out. Alonso swung at the first pitch and hit into a 6-4-3 double play.

New York starter David Peterson had given up eight runs and eight hits in two innings during his last start against Miami, but he had the Reds pounding the ball into the ground for three innings.

Seven of his first nine outs came on ground balls and he survived the three-run fourth. He pitched 5 1/3 innings and gave up four runs and seven hits.

But New York’s bullpen matched Cincinnati’s, four relief pitchers held them to no runs and two hits over 3 2/3 innings.

And the Reds let Diaz escape a near inescapable situation.

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