On Friday night the Cincinnati Reds fell behind early and while they had plenty of opportunities, they couldn’t quite come through when they needed it the most. In the end, the New York Mets held on for a 5-4 win, stranding the bases loaded in the 9th inning to take the first game of a series that felt like Cincinnati needed a sweep to have any chance at making the playoffs in 2025. Tonight the two teams are back on the field at Great American Ball Park with a scheduled first pitch at 6:40pm ET.
Starting Lineups
New York Mets | Cincinnati Reds |
| Francisco Lindor – SS | TJ Friedl – CF |
| Juan Soto – RF | Noelvi Marte – RF |
| Brandon Nimmo – LF | Elly De La Cruz – SS |
| Pete Alonso – 1B | Austin Hays – LF |
| Jeff McNeil – 2B | Gavin Lux – DH |
| Mark Vientos – DH | Spencer Steer – 1B |
| Brett Baty – 3B | Sal Stewart – 3B |
| Luis Torrens – C | Jose Trevino – C |
| Cedric Mullins – CF | Matt McLain – 2B |
| Jonah Tong – RHP | Brady Singer – RHP |
Starting Pitchers
| Pitcher | IP | ERA | WHIP | BB | K |
| Brady Singer | 143.1 | 4.08 | 1.26 | 52 | 140 |
| Jonah Tong | 5.0 | 1.80 | 1.20 | 0 | 6 |
| Links: Brady Singer’s Stats | Jonah Tong’s Stats | |||||
Brady Singer
Things have gone well for Brady Singer over his last four starts as he’s allowed just five earned runs in 24.0 innings. Three of those runs came in his last start – a 7-4 win by the Reds over St. Louis.
The splits this season for Singer are big. He’s been very good against right-handed hitters, who aren’t hitting for average, getting on-base much, nor are they hitting for power. Lefties aren’t walking much against him, but they are hitting for what’s a solid average in 2025 and when they do get hits against him they are showing good power.
Splits
| Split | PA | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | K | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| RHH | 262 | 53 | 12 | 2 | 3 | 22 | 55 | .228 | .303 | .336 |
| LHH | 344 | 75 | 16 | 4 | 11 | 30 | 85 | .248 | .324 | .437 |
Pitch Usage
| 4-seam | 2-seam | Slider | Cutter | |
| Velo | 91.5 | 92.2 | 82.3 | 87.9 |
| Usage | 10% | 40% | 38% | 11% |
Jonah Tong
The Mets called up Jonah Tong last week to join their rotation. The Canadian had been dominant in the minor leagues, making 20 starts in Double-A with a 1.59 ERA and two starts in Triple-A where he didn’t allow a run, throwing 113.2 innings between the two stops and allowing just 58 hits while striking out 179 batters. In his debut he allowed one earned run, but was charged with three unearned runs while giving up six hits in 5.0 innings.
We need to remember that Tong has only made three starts above Double-A when looking at his splits, but those splits do tell us that guys in Double-A hit him like they were all pitchers. He’s given up just two home runs all season – both to lefties. Lefties make more contact but have still struck out 37% of the time that they’ve faced him.
Splits (MiLB & MLB in 2025)
| Split | PA | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | K | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| RHH | 277 | 41 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 27 | 115 | .166 | .254 | .198 |
| LHH | 188 | 23 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 20 | 70 | .137 | .229 | .208 |
Pitch Usage (AAA & MLB in 2025)
| 4-seam | Cutter | Curve | Change | |
| Velo | 95.7 | 87.3 | 77.5 | 85.4 |
| Usage | 57% | 5% | 8% | 29% |
When and Where
- Game time: 6:40pm ET
- Where: Great American Ball Park
- Watch: FanDuel Sports Network, MLB.tv
- Listen: 700 WLW AM (Cincinnati area)
- Forecast: 69°, partly cloudy, 5% chance of rain
News and Notes
Terry Francona not available
The Reds will be without Terry Francona tonight as he’s out with an illness – likely whatever has been going around the clubhouse over the past few days. Freddie Benavides will manage the game tonight. This was first reported by C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic.
Davey Johnson passes away
Former Cincinnati Reds manager Davey Johnson has passed away at the age of 82. He managed the Reds for part of 1993 through the 1995 season. He went 204-172 with the Reds and led them to 1st place finishes in each of the two full seasons he managed the team (1994 and 1995). Johnson is the last manager to take the Reds beyond the first round of the playoffs when Cincinnati swept the Dodgers in the divisional series before being swept by Atlanta in the NLCS. You can read a much more thorough piece on Johnson’s playing and managerial career at MLB.com right here.
Wild Card Standings
With the division firmly out of reach, we are switching to the Wild Card standings for the rest of the season.
| Team | W | L | GB | Playoff Odds |
| Chicago | 81 | 60 | +5.0 | 99.9% |
| San Diego | 76 | 65 | 0.0 | 94.5% |
| New York | 76 | 65 | 0.0 | 96.5% |
| San Francisco | 72 | 69 | 4.0 | 6.6% |
| Arizona | 71 | 71 | 5.5 | 2.0% |
| Cincinnati | 70 | 71 | 6.0 | 1.4% |
| Playoff Odds via Fangraphs | ||||
Reds maybe are starting to play for pride, to spoil or someting like that but the plyoffs looked gone…Tito isn’t managing today because an illness perhaps means something in that way…I would like to Singer can keep his good stretch and kind to stop the starting pitching slid recently…Sal Stewart has to be everyday in the starting lineup beginning today…likewise, Rece Hinds and/or maybe Hector Rodriguez could take a shot for the rest of the season…
I would like to see something like that, but in reality it should probably wait until they are mathematically eliminated. At that point, get Hinds, CES, and Dunn up for at bats. Espinal shouldn’t even sniff the field. Steer can go on the IL and get a head start on getting that shoulder healthy. Andujar won’t need to play. Lux, Friedl, Hays, and Hayes can play sparingly. Stewart, Marte, EDLC, Marte, Hinds, CES, and Dunn start every game and get as many at bats as possible. I would hold off on Rodriguez for this year, but would have no problem with a call up for him as well.
No to all of that. My opinion. Yours may be different.
@Oldtimer Are these guys ever going to get a chance to prove what they can do? How about when we are mathematically eliminated?
Totally agree DW.
OT is correct.
It would be probably be only 7-10 games.
At that point the current starters will still play 3 out of 4 games.
Hinds, CES, Dunn have had chances to play MLB. They have had limited success. Their AAA stats in 2025 are of limited value at best.
There is a 28-man roster limit. 14 position players and 14 pitchers.
A little quiet here tonight …
Personally, I would have rested Elly, slid MattMc over, and put Sal at 2B. But I’m not making the decisions even when Tito is home and ailing.
A win would be nice tonight. Because winning is always better.
Stewart! first career blast! Hope it will be the first of an infinity number… From rookie to rookie
That works, Sal.
Reds regulars cannot do much with fast ball after fastball but the rookie who hadn’t played in 3 days said I can hit 96 up.
You’re right. Elly used to make a living hitting high FB but been struggling hitting it, same goes with the rest of Reds hitters.
MM proved both of us wrong lol. He continues to rake
Two walks before facing Soto is bad
Singer needs to keep the ball low. Anything belt high, even on the outside or inside Will be hit.
Score 2 and Singer forgets how to pitch, typical.
Congrats, Sal!
Reds are done for 2025. It was a good year till late August which was better than I had hoped for back in April
See you all next year
Nice swat from MattyMc
Yeah. Good bat speed. He’s what, 4 HRs from tying Elly for team lead? Unreal.
How many Chumpires does it take to blow a call? All four of them in this case.
Barry Larkin seems to think that they were absolutely correct.
Cowboy and Thrall didn’t. His route wasn’t completely out of the line. Looked like the original call was a tag and that didn’t happen.
Makes no difference in the end, does it?
I don’t always like Larkin, but he explained it perfectly.
The mistake Marte made was not altering his original path towards the outside of the bag. He was in his established line, then darted out of it, not even being able to reach the bag.
Elly just isn’t the same, I bet he can’t wait for this season to end and reset.
Elly being caught stealing maybe proves he’s no 100% healthy
Guys get caught stealing.
Torrens has the 3rd best pop time in MLB
How is Lindor not called for blocking the base on the steal?
Can Sal play SS? Elly just needs to sit the rest of the season.
McLain can
Good inning by Singer on few pitches…he attacked the batters and mixed well
Reds showing pop today… Tong is paying his unexperience
Reds have 3 hits for 3 HRs. Maybe, just maybe, Reds players just realize that they are playing at GABP.
Terry Francona isn’t in the dugout to tell them to note hit home runs.
I have a seat on my bandwagon if you’re a member of anti Francona club.
Thanks Lindor… bad steal attempt…
+5,000
Marte wants in on the HR party … but you’ve got to make contact to do that.
JB & Richard, you were saying?
Reds are on just 3 hits, all are dingers…
Love the emotion from Singer after the K.
I would like to see Singer as the fifth starter on a Reds rotation next year, joining Greene (hopefully healty) , Lodolo (hopefully healthy), Abbott (working on durability) and Burns … We’ll see how Lowder, Williamson and Aguiar come to the spring training
Per Jim Day…
Burns will throw a live BP tomorrow.
2 pitches to Soto that were strikes were called balls.
Trevino did a poor job of framing in that sequence.
Off the bat, Stewart looked like he had #2
TJ delivers with the bases loaded RBI single!
On base streak now at 16
Marte struckout again with bases loaded and 1 out…
Elly delivers a bases loaded walk, to tack on.
Elly walked to bring in 1 more run this time
Got 2 runs out of that. Feels like we should have gotten more. But we take what they give us when we’re ahead.
Look like the change up got him over and over again. He needs to make adjustment.
This is to comment on Marte struck out again.
Pagan says I also like to live dangerously….
Singer i would definitely bring back next yr. solid pitcher veteran gives you innings doesn’t seem to get rattled.
Finally
and as Marty would have said, “and this one belongs to the Reds!”
Needless to say, we could have used a few more games like this one.
We’ve been on the other side a lot of games where we had more hits but scored less. HRs carried us today. Singer has been money.
Nice win by the Reds tonight, they led all the game … Singer tossed 6 strong innings and the bullpen could hold the Mets on … this game was relatively easy to the Reds so I wonder if they were less pressed or Were the Mets relaxed?
Just win tomorrow again …