CINCINNATI — Brandon Sproat‘s Sunday outing in Cincinnati was anything but typical.
Of course, this outing was never going to be typical. The ballpark was different, the uniform was different and while his catcher, Francisco Alvarez, was familiar, even he too was different than the one who has been behind the plate for most of his starts this season.
A top pitching prospect, the right-hander made his big league debut Sunday at Great American Ballpark. It was a stellar debut, with the rookie rendering the Cincinnati Reds hitless until the sixth inning. But Reds right-hander Hunter Greene absolutely dominated the Mets, striking out 12 over seven innings to hand them a 3-2 loss.
“I’m pleased with how I threw,” Sproat said. “I competed. They’re a good team, but onto the next one.”
The Reds (72-71) took the series and now own the tiebreaker over the Mets (76-67) in the NL Wild Card.
Greene was still throwing gas in the seventh inning. The Mets could do nothing with a triple-digit fastball that reached 101.5 MPH and stayed around 100 throughout the entire outing, whiffing on his fastball 11 times. They missed on his other two pitches as well, a slider and splitter.
Greene struck out the first five hitters he faced, and seven of the first nine. Brett Baty hit a one-out slider in the top of the third over the right field fence for a home run to give the Mets a 1-0 lead, which seemed like a herculean feat the way the right-hander was pitching.
It was the only hit the Mets managed against Greene (6-4), who didn’t even allow much traffic on the basepaths. He walked two hitters, one in the fourth and one in the seventh, before striking out the next three to end his outing.
“He was pretty nasty today,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “We know the fastball, obviously, is electric, but when he’s able to land that slider for strikes, whether it’s strike 1 or to get chases to get back into counts, then you’ve got the split against lefties, it makes it for a tough at-bat. That’s what we saw today.”
Yet it was Sproat who managed to carry a no-hitter into the sixth, despite not having the best feel for his pitches early on in the outing.
The 24-year-old University of Florida product allowed a run before he even allowed a hit, with the Reds tying the game at 1-1 on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fourth. Sproat walked four, struggling with his command at times. He walked Noelvi Marte to start the fourth, and the outfielder then swiped second, and advanced to third on a ground-ball.
A fly ball by Austin Hays broke up the shutout, but Sproat recovered to get the final out, before working around a two-out walk in the fifth.
He finally surrendered a hit in the sixth. Marte hit a soft line drive to right on the first pitch for a one-out single. Elly De La Cruz then doubled to right-center field to score the go-ahead run, and took third on the throw. A third straight hit, this one a single by Hays, gave the Reds a 3-1 lead.
“He hung a sweeper, I think, to De La Cruz, and got a ground ball with the infield [playing in],” Mendoza said. “But he was able to finish that inning, so I didn’t see any, any signs of him getting tired or anything like that, and pitch-count-wise, he was in a good place.”
Sproat (0-1) struck out the next two hitters he faced to end his outing. Three hits, three earned runs and seven strikeouts was still an excellent debut, but it was tough to match what Greene was doing.
“I was impressed with the way he used the secondary pitches — the curveball, the sweeper — and then the way he mixed,” Mendoza said. “Even behind in counts, he was able to throw that breaking ball to get back in counts, and got swing-and-misses. He found a way to give us a solid six innings, and gave us a chance to win a game. Overall, a great performance.”
Juan Soto homered in the ninth, and the Mets had two on with one out facing right-hander Tony Santillan, but Starling Marte grounded into a game-ending double play.
They’re now 0-59 when trailing after eight innings.
Had Edwin Diaz not gotten out of a bases-loaded jam Friday night, the Mets would have been swept. As a whole, the series doesn’t exactly inspire much confidence for the stretch run, or for the next four games of the road trip in Philadelphia with the Phillies sitting 7.5 games ahead of the Mets in the NL East.
But give credit where it’s due, Greene was nearly unhittable.
“It’s funny, I’ve seen videos of that guy when he was back in high school, and what he was doing in high school was super impressive, and his career has been super impressive,” Sproat said. “His ability today to fill up the strike zone with pretty much whatever he wanted to throw was really cool to watch. He’s a great competitor, and a great, great player.”
Originally Published:
