Mets Lose to Reds 6-1

Scott Rolen and Todd Frazier hit back-to-back home runs, and Mike Leake pitched his second complete game of the season, helping the Cincinnati Reds extend their win streak to five with a 6-1 win over the New York Mets on Wednesday night.

 

Jay Bruce homered for the third consecutive game, helping the first-place Reds improve to 21-8 since All-Star first baseman Joey Votto was forced out of the lineup with a left knee injury.

 

Leake (5-7) faced three batters over the minimum and added an RBI single. He allowed four hits, no walks and struck out four.

 

R.A. Dickey tied his season high for hits and home runs allowed while slipping to 2-3 over his last five starts. The Reds touched Dickey (15-4) for 10 hits, including three homers, and two walks in six innings. The knuckleballer had nine strikeouts.

 

The Reds wasted no time gaining an early edge against Dickey, who went into the game tied for the major league lead with 15 wins. Zack Cozart led off Cincinnati's first with a double down the left field line. Drew Stubbs sacrificed Cozart to third, and he scored on Brandon Phillips' soft single to center.

 

The Reds extended their streak of consecutive scoreless innings to 28, the team's longest since a 32-inning streak in June 1963, before the Mets pushed across the tying run in the fourth. Mike Baxter led off with a single off the glove of second baseman Brandon Phillips — New York's first baserunner — and moved to third on Ruben Tejada's single before scoring on Daniel Murphy's double-play ball.

 

Rolen, who missed Cincinnati's previous seven games with lower back problems, broke the tie with his sixth homer of the season, a 357-foot drive into the left field seats on a 3-1 pitch. Two pitches later, Frazier launched a 1-0 pitch 474 feet to center field for his 15th homer of the season.

 

Frazier's homer is the 10th longest in the 10-year history of Great American Ball Park, according to the Reds.

 

Bruce led off the sixth with a 428-foot shot into the right-field seats on a one-strike pitch, his 24th. His two-run homer gave the Reds a 2-0 lead in their 3-0 win over the Cubs in Chicago on Sunday, and he followed that with a three-run walkoff homer in the Reds' 3-0 win over the Mets on Tuesday. He has homered in three consecutive games for the second time this season. He also did it April 26-29.

 

Leake added a two-out RBI single in the sixth and Ryan Ludwick extended his hit streak to seven games (10 for 29, .345).