Mets' Edwin Diaz earns first save of season in victory over Reds
Edwin Díaz of the Mets yells as he reacts to striking out Jake Fraley of the Cincinnati Reds to end the game at Great American Ball Park on April 05, 2024 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Credit: Getty Images/Aaron Doster
CINCINNATI — As he finished off the Mets’ 3-2 victory over the Reds, Edwin Diaz had more on the line than just a win Friday night. There also was the matter of a particularly expensive dinner next winter.
This is the first season that he and his brother, the Reds’ Alexis Diaz, both are full-time, bona fide standout closers in the same league. So during the offseason, amid their “healthy trash” talk, as Edwin described it, they made a bet about who could collect more saves in their teams’ season series.
The elder brother, the Mets brother, struck first when he struck out Jake Fraley swinging at a slider for the final out, stranding the would-be tying run at third base. That marked his first save since Oct. 4, 2022, and his first time pitching on consecutive days since about the same time.
It also gave him a lead in this friendly wager. The Mets and Reds have five games to go; Saturday and Sunday, plus three at Citi Field in early September, when both clubs expect to be in the playoff hunt.
The losing sibling will have to pay for a full family dinner — parents and kids and all — after the season.
“I told him: You play in the big leagues. You’re making money. You should take us to a good restaurant,” Edwin Diaz said. “As of right now, I’m first. Let’s see how we finish.”
Diaz spoke in front of the locker that contained a special souvenir: the ball that he threw for the final strike to Fraley. After he missed all of 2023 because of a torn right patellar tendon, this one meant something to Diaz and those around him. He said he plans to put the ball in a case and keep it at home, maybe give it to his three sons — the newest of whom, Lucas, was born last month. Diaz’s family and children stayed in New York for this round of the reunion.
Called on for the only spot in which manager Carlos Mendoza felt comfortable using him on no rest, a save situation, Diaz made it interesting. He inherited a two-run lead. The Reds’ first two batters reached on his fielding error and a walk. Then came a force play, a sacrifice fly and a wild pitch before it ended.
“It was good not only to get the save but to be able to work with some trouble,” Mendoza said. “It was good for him to slow it down, continue to make pitches and eventually get the job done.”
Diaz added: “I controlled my emotions really good. I did a great job. I made my pitches when I had to make it.”
The eventual slim margin meant that any of a handful of moments could be pinpointed as the difference in the Mets’ second consecutive win (after they opened the year with five losses in a row).
Jeff McNeil homered in the eighth — his second hit in 19 at-bats — for a key insurance run. Brooks Raley threw Elly De La Cruz four straight sweeping sliders, three of them called strikes, to strand the bases loaded in the seventh. And Brett Baty made a pair of standout defensive plays, including a diving midair catch of Spencer Steer’s scorched line drive in the fifth, saving a hit and probably a run and helping to snuff out a Cincinnati rally.
Baty, quietly among the Mets’ better players through a week-plus, acknowledged that stacking up good plays helps his confidence.
“But the bigger thing is we won a really tight game and our energy level the past two games has been really good,” he said. “We’ve been in every single pitch.”
Soft-tossing lefthander Jose Quintana (52/3 innings, one run) and flamethrowing righthander Hunter Greene (six innings, one run) took different approaches to about the same result.
McNeil’s homer came with a new pair of batting gloves, courtesy of Brandon Nimmo. He inscribed lighthearted advice on the packaging: “Swing at good pitches and hit it where they’re not.” He also signed it.
“I did that today,” a smiling McNeil said. “There’s nobody in the rightfield bleachers.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
