Mets 7, Reds 5

Not that the Reds’ pitching is anything to get excited about, but for the third time in their last four games, the Mets’ offense put some runs on the board. This time it was Cliff Floyd, who’s been inconsistent of late, with the extraordinary performance, knocking a pair of out of the park to give him ten home runs on the year and to give the Mets a lead that was, for a time, fairly comfortable. Ty Wigginton also added his seventh home run of the year while Kazuo Matsui doubled and singled to continue his slow return to the realm of productive offensive players.

And to go along with all of this offense, the Mets also got some good starting pitching. For a while, at least. Jae Weong Seo got through six innings having allowed just one run, but in the seventh, the Reds finally got to him. Seo wound up pitching just six and one-third innings, allowing four runs on eight hits and three walks while striking out five. The big blow was a pinch hit home run by Brandon Larson in the seventh. Seo left with a runner on first and Ricky Bottalico allowed that run to score before recording one out via a strikeout. John Franco came in to get the final out of the seventh after allowing a walk. Then Jose Parra had another fine outing, pitching a scoreless eighth inning. Braden Looper, pitching for the first time in almost a week, wasn’t at his sharpest in the ninth, but after three straight hits to lead off the inning, Looper managed to get a double play and a groundout to end the game, allowing just one run.

Down in AAA, it was a slow day for David Wright, who managed just a singled and a hit by pitch in a 5-4 Norfolk win. Victor Diaz provided the only extra base hit for the Tides, doubling and walking in the game.

Tomorrow, it’s the same promising pitching matchup that didn’t work out so well last Thursday, as Tom Glavine (7-4, 2.11) takes on Cory Lidle (5-5, 5.05).  ¶ joe | 12:00 AM |