For the second straight night, the Mets got the scoring started with a home run. After Jose Reyes lined out weakly to Arroyo to start the bottom half of the first, Pagan laced into one, driving the ball into the bullpen in right center to make it 1-0.
The Reds evened it up in the top of third in the same fashion. After Niese cruised through the first two batters, he left a changeup over the middle of the plate to Brandon Phillips, who crushed the ball into the left field stands to make it 1-1.
In the seventh, the Reds extended their lead. After Reds' rookie Chris Heisey made a nice running catch to rob Bay of a likely triple to end the sixth, he came up and hit a solo shot to put the Reds up 2-1. Two hits allowed by Niese to that point, both home runs. After a fluke bunt by Arroyo with two outs kept the inning alive, Brandon Phillips killed the Mets again with an RBI double to make it 3-1.
The Mets' bats went quietly in this one. They had runners on first and second with one out in the ninth but failed to produce any runs. Would love to tip my cap to Bronson Arroyo for a great game. However, the Mets have seen him enough times now to figure him out. Have to do better than what they did tonight.
It's starting to concern me quite a bit that the Mets have done so poorly in clutch situations this year. Playoff teams find a way to win these kinds of games and the Mets simply haven't done that this season. But, there's still half a season to play and with a good series against Atlanta, things will turn around. Let's go Mets!
Post Game 7/7/10 Reds 3 - Mets 1
