Mets fall to Reds after Yohan Ramirez gives up five runs in eighth
Yohan Ramírez of the Mets throws in the eighth inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park on April 06, 2024 in Cincinnati. Credit: Getty Images
CINCINNATI — Facing little other choice, Carlos Mendoza attempted the most stressful kind of managerial tightrope walk Saturday evening, trying to navigate the late innings of a close game with a bare-bones bullpen, all of his best relievers deemed unavailable.
It didn’t work.
The Mets lost to the Reds, 9-6, after blowing a three-run lead. Mendoza watched as a bottom-of-the-roster reliever, Yohan Ramirez, crumbled during a weird, wild, game-deciding eighth inning in which Cincinnati scored five runs, three on Spencer Steer’s go-ahead homer.
That sequence, combined with an all-around wobbly defensive effort, sent the Mets to a sixth loss in eight games to begin the year.
“It got out of hand,” Mendoza said.
In an eight-man bullpen, five relievers could not pitch in this game, Mendoza said. Edwin Diaz, Adam Ottavino, Brooks Raley and Drew Smith all threw both of the previous two days and Reed Garrett still was recovering from his three-inning grind Thursday.
Wary of overworking relievers, especially so early in the season, the Mets stayed away from all of them.
Mendoza needed to figure out four innings after Luis Severino held the Reds to two runs (one earned) in five frames. His options: Jake Diekman, who allowed two runs in an 18-pitch sixth; Ramirez, who had cruised through the seventh, and Jorge Lopez, who was earmarked for a save opportunity that never came.
“I felt pretty fresh leading up to today and I knew what the situation was,” Ramirez, who hadn’t pitched since serving a two-game suspension for throwing behind Rhys Hoskins last weekend, said through an interpreter. “So mentally and physically, I was ready to go in and really do whatever the team needed me to do.”
The eighth started like this: walk, steal, strikeout/reach on a wild pitch. That put runners at the corners with nobody out.
Elly De La Cruz tied the score with a check-swing ground ball that sneaked through the left side of the infield for a single. After he stole second, Steer went deep, barely, launching a fly ball into the first row of seats in left-centerfield.
With the damage done, Mendoza left Ramirez in to toil, the most important moments passed. The Reds loaded the bases and added another run on Christian Encarnacion-Strand’s sacrifice fly.
By the end, Ramirez had thrown 53 pitches.
“In a situation that you really can’t control, like the hit that Elly De La Cruz had, it was a check swing — things just ended up going their way,” Ramirez said.
The eighth began tight because the Reds rallied for a pair of runs against Diekman, turning a three-run game into a one-run game.
Cincinnati plated the second of those runs on a two-out double steal, with Stuart Fairchild swiping second and Steer easily scooting home once Omar Narvaez threw the ball.
The decision to throw the ball down — and not merely hold on to it, the conservative approach — came from the bench, Narvaez and Jeff McNeil said. Before that at-bat, the Mets’ coaching staff determined the risk was worth it: If they could snag Fairchild at second, the inning would be over and Steer would be irrelevant.
It backfired when Narvaez’s throw wasn’t close. Opposing teams are 8-for-8 in steal attempts against him this season.
Narvaez said that in the moment, he had the autonomy to overrule — if he deemed it appropriate — what the coaches called.
“For a second, I thought, oh, just pump-fake,” he said. “I had a little thought to not throw to second, but I was already in the motion and I ended up throwing to second . . . By the time I thought to stop, I couldn’t.”
Mendoza said: “It was one of those where we know that’s part of their game. Probably should’ve ate it there. That’s what they do. Double steal there and it cost us a run.”
Narvaez had a rare successful game offensively, going 3-for-4 with two RBIs, his first three-hit game since May 29, 2022.
His two-run single off Nick Martinez (five innings, five runs) keyed the Mets’ four-run fourth inning. Brandon Nimmo doubled to drive in the other two runs.
The unraveling began shortly thereafter.
“In the beginning of the game, we did everything right,” Narvaez said. “By the end, we couldn’t finish.”
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.
