The New York Mets will seek to start another winning streak when they visit the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday night for the opener of a three-game series.
The Cincinnati Reds ended the Mets’ nine-game winning streak on Sunday with a 3-1 victory.
That left the Mets (78-65) tied in the National League wild-card race with the Atlanta Braves, who defeated the Blue Jays (68-76) 4-3 in 11 innings on Sunday.
The Mets completed a 5-1 homestand and are on the road for the next six games.
“Streaks are going to come to an end,” Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo said. “We’ve been playing really good baseball. We’re going to continue to try to do that on this road trip. It’s really all been coming together.”
The Blue Jays have not played the role of spoilers well. They lost two of three in Atlanta and have dropped three consecutive series against teams involved in a race for the postseason.
Spencer Horwitz continued to impress when he hit a two-run homer as a pinch hitter in the eighth inning against Joe Jimenez on Sunday to give Toronto a 2-1 lead. He finished 2-for-2 to go 6-for-8 in the series with three homers and a double.
“Pinch-hitting is tough, and I think on a day like today he impacted the game in a variety of ways,” Toronto manager John Schneider said. “A day like today is tough to come in and pinch-hit against a high-leverage reliever. It’s pretty impressive.”
The Blue Jays exposed their poor fundamental play in the 11th inning on Sunday, however, when they failed to protect a 3-2 lead.
Reliever Zach Pop did not field Eli White’s bunt that went for a leadoff single. Third baseman Addison Barger threw wildly to first on Adam Duvall’s grounder, allowing the tying run to score. White beat the throw to the plate on Sean Murphy’s grounder to second to score the winning run.
“You can chalk it up to inexperience, but at the end of the day, this is the big leagues, you’ve got to make plays,” Schneider said. “You learn from it. We’ll talk about it (Monday). You move on.”
The Mets are scheduled to start right-hander Paul Blackburn (5-4, 4.66 ERA) on Monday. He is 0-1, 3.45, in three career starts against Toronto. The Blue Jays had not named a starting pitcher.
Blackburn (right hand contusion) missed two starts after taking a line drive off his right hand on Aug. 23 against the San Diego Padres. Blackburn went on the injured list and pitched 6 2/3 innings in a rehabilitation start for Triple-A Syracuse on Tuesday. He allowed one run, four hits and a walk with four strikeouts.
The Mets called outfielder DJ Stewart up from Triple-A on Sunday to take the roster spot of infielder Jeff McNeil, who was placed on the IL (fractured right wrist). McNeil was hit by a pitch on Friday and is expected to miss the rest of the regular season. Jose Iglesias has played second base for the past two games and is expected to continue there.
If you see me on the field again, that’s a really good thing,” McNeil said. “I want to say I can come back and help contribute. Who knows — we’ve got to kind of see how it heals in the next few weeks, and then it might be a pain management kind of thing.”
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