Scoring early and often led the Cincinnati Reds to a 7-2 victory over the New York Mets before 36,734 fans at Citi Field on a Memorial Day afternoon game in Flushing, N.Y.
All seven Cincinnati runs crossed the plate in the first four innings, leaving a beleaguered, weak-hitting, injury-plagued Mets team hearing boos from the home crowd. That was thanks in large part to starting pitcher Nick Lodolo’s best outing of the year.
In other early holiday action, Pittsburgh sent the Cubs to their ninth consecutive loss, 2-1, and the first-place Brewers took care of St. Louis, 5-1. With all NL Central action completed for today, 31-20 Milwaukee leads the pack. The second-place Cardinals are 2.5 back, followed by the Cubs at 3.5, the Reds at four, and then the Pirates at 4.5. All five teams in the division are above .500.
The Offense
The composite hitting line: 6-for-33 (.182), 4 walks and 15 strikeouts. Not too impressive at first glance, but positive performance at pivotal moments was the key.
Eugenio Suarez led off the second inning with a single, and Nathaniel Lowe then dropped a fly ball directly on the right-field chalk line for a double. Spencer Steer knocked both of them in with a single up the middle for a lead the visiting team would not relinquish. JJ Bleday hit his seventh homer, a solo shot, in the third, and Tyler Stephenson’s two-run homer capped off a four-run fourth and Reds’ scoring for the day.
Suarez (2-for-3 and a walk) and Lowe (the double and two walks) both reached base three times to lead the Reds. Elly De La Cruz wore the golden sombrero, with four strikeouts in an 0-for-5 day.
The Pitching
Cincinnati’s composite pitching line: 9 innings, 9 hits, ZERO walks and 12 strikeouts.
Lodolo appeared to finally get untracked in what was his best start of 2026. In six innings, Lodolo allowed six hits, struck out seven and walked none. The only run he allowed was a sixth-inning solo shot to Mets infielder Marcus Semien.
Of particular note: Lodolo did not throw a single slider, according to baseballsavant.com. That’s the pitch which reportedly caused the blister issue Lodolo has dealt with through much of his early major league career. For Lodolo, pitching effectively without one of his primary “out” pitches is a big step forward, and hopefully not using the slider will mean that the blister issue will not re-emerge.
Brock Burke pitched two-thirds of an inning in the seventh, allowing one run thanks primarily to left fielder Bleday’s misread of a fly ball that fell for a double. Teejay Antone got the inning’s final out around two Mets singles. Sam Moll and Graham Ashcraft finished things up with a scoreless inning apiece.
One fan’s thoughts
In today’s game thread, I commented on how subpar the Mets batting order that started today’s game appeared. They didn’t start Juan Soto or Francisco Lindor, their two best hitters. The starting batting order didn’t have a hitter with an OPS of .800 or above. It looked like a team — after losing three games to the Miami Marlins and having scored only four runs in their past four games — that was in position to be beaten.
In the first inning, the Mets’ starting pitcher, Nolan McLean, looked like a blend of Nolan Ryan and Bert Blyleven in their respective primes. McLean got ahead with well-placed fastballs and put Reds hitters away with breaking pitches that had movement you don’t often see. All three Reds first-inning batters struck out, and it looked like it might be a struggle-at-the-plate day.
But McLean showed the same weakness as Connor Phillips — great stuff, but unable to locate consistently. The Reds waited McLean out. The four batters to whom he threw a first-pitch fastball were all strikes, but thereafter, only five of 15 first-pitch non-fastballs were strikes. And McLean, on this day, did not have the control to recover from being down in the count.
It was nice to see a Reds team able to take advantage of a team that seemed ready to be beaten. That’s a sign of a good team, one which we haven’t seen that much of in recent weeks. With Chase Burns and Andrew Abbott starting games two and three of the series, I’m thinking sweep, and I hope the Reds are too.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds at New York Mets
Tuesday, May 26, 7 p.m. ET
Chase Burns (6-1, 1.83 ERA) vs. TBA