New York Mets pitcher Edwin Díaz reacts following the team’s baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds on Friday, April 5, 2024, in Cincinnati.
AP Photo | Jeff Dean
CINCINNATI — Edwin Díaz pitched out of trouble in the ninth inning to earn his first save since October 2022, and the New York Mets held off the Cincinnati Reds 3-2 on Friday night.
Jeff McNeil hit his first home run of the season and Jose Quintana provided a solid start as the Mets won their second straight one-run game after opening 0-5.
New York avoided its first 0-6 start since 1963 by scoring twice in the bottom of the ninth to beat Detroit 2-1 in the second game of Thursday’s doubleheader. The Mets were hitless through seven inning in that game.
The offense sputtered again on Friday.
New York had the bases loaded with one out in both the fifth and seventh. But all the Mets could muster were two runs, one on a sacrifice fly and another on a fielding error.
The Reds squandered a bases-loaded chance in the seventh when Brooks Raley threw a called third strike past Elly De La Cruz to end the threat.
