CINCINNATI – There are few moral victories in baseball, particularly this late in the season, but as rookie Brandon Sproat went toe-to-toe with a nearly unhittable Hunter Greene Sunday afternoon, there was little doubt that the Mets could leave Great American Ball Park with more than just two straight stinging losses against the Reds.
A ninth-inning rally fizzled and the Mets lost, 3-2, allowing the Reds to get within four games of the Mets for the third and final Wild Card spot. But Sproat, who earned the tough luck loss, didn’t buckle in his major-league debut, allowing three runs and three hits with four walks and seven strikeouts over six innings, and carrying a no-hitter into the sixth inning.
The problem? The Mets managed just three hits: Brett Baty’s solo homer in the third briefly put them up by one, and Juan Soto hit a 393-foot homer off Tony Santillan in the ninth to draw them to within one; it was Soto’s 38th home run.
The Mets put the tying run on first after that, when Pete Alonso reached on an error by shortstop Elly De La Cruz. Brandon Nimmo then singled, moving pinch runner Luisangel Acuna to scoring position, but Starling Marte hit into the game-ending 6-4-3 double play.
Still, the Mets very precarious rotation seems, at least for now, a lot less wobbly, and it’s all thanks to the trio of prospects who were thrown into the furnace and came out mostly unsinged. Nolan McLean has dominated; Jonah Tong, despite a hiccup on Saturday, has shown serious mettle; and Sproat more than held his own, control issues notwithstanding.
Greene, meanwhile, was nothing less than filthy: The hard-throwing ace routinely averaged 100.2 mph on his fastball, and struck out six of the first seven batters he faced. He allowed one run and one hit with two walks and 12 strikeouts in seven innings against a punchless Mets offense.
Greene’s only misstep came courtesy of Baty in the third.
Baty – who made a nice defensive stop in the first to kick off a double play and another nice snag on a 106.7-mph liner in the second – made an even louder declaration in the third, pulling a first-pitch slider 381 feet to right for a solo homer and the 1-0 lead.
The Reds tied it in the fourth without a hit. Noelvi Marte worked a leadoff walk, stole second, moved to third on a groundout and scored on Austin Hays’ sacrifice fly to center.
Sproat carried a no-hitter through 5 1/3 innings before the Reds finally broke through, leading to two runs. Marte laced a one-out single and De La Cruz hit a laser to the gap in right-center for a go-ahead RBI double. De La Cruz moved to third on the throw and scored on Hays’ single.
Megill struggles. Tylor Megill (elbow) labored through his rehab appearance with Triple-A Syracuse Sunday, allowing five runs and four hits with two walks, three strikeouts and two hit batsmen over two innings.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.