Where would the red-hot Mets be without Mark Vientos?

Vientos hit a pair of home runs, including a walk-off blast, to lead the unstoppable Mets to yet another victory...

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What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️

• The Mets walked off the Reds 6-4 on Friday night at Citi Field to win a season-best eighth straight game (box)

• 3B Mark Vientos hit a pair of two-run home runs in the game, including a walk-off blast in the bottom of the 10th to win the opening game of the series for New York - he now has two walk-off RBI in his career

• 2B Jose Iglesias entered the game as a pinch-hitter and scored 1B Pete Alonso on a line-drive single to make it a 3-2 game

• DH J.D. Martinez, in his return to the lineup, hit a two-out, RBI single in the sixth to add to the lead

• LHP Sean Manaea gave up four earned runs on three hits with a pair of home runs, two walks and nine strikeouts in 6.2 innings - the first time he has allowed more than three runs in a single game since July 19

• The bullpen was stellar with RHP Reed Garrett, RHP Edwin Díaz and RHP José Buttó combining for 3.1 of scoreless and hitless innings with no walks and six strikeouts

• The Mets are now 29-20 in series openers, 50-20 when scoring first, 39-27 in one or two run games, 16-11 vs the NL Central, 38-12 when they hit 2+ homers, 20-54 when allowing 4 or more runs, 62-24 when scoring 4 or more runs, 28-18 since the All-Star Game, and enjoyed their 10th walkoff win of the season

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Just Keep Winning! 📈

Charles Wenzelberg - NY Post

• The Mets are now riding an eight-game winning streak - their longest-such streak since Aug. 3-10, 2019

• New York is now 77-64 - a season-high 13 games over .500

• After starting the year 22-33, the Mets have gone 55-31 since May 30, which is the best record in baseball during that span

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Playoff Race 🏁

The Mets are still tied with Atlanta for the final Wild Card spot in the National League after the Braves beat the Blue Jays 3-1 on Friday night. The Padres won their game against the Giants, while the Diamondbacks lost 8-0 to the Astros.

As a result, the Mets are 1.5 games behind Arizona for the second Wild Card berth, and 3 games back of San Diego for the top Wild Card spot.

There are 21 games remaining.

Per FanGraphs, the Mets have a 49.8% chance of making the postseason.

New York has the ninth hardest schedule in MLB the rest of the way.

Tiebreakers:

• vs. ATL: 5-5

• vs. ARI: 4-3 (finished)

• vs. SD: 5-2 (finished)

• vs. CHC: 4-3 (finished)

• vs. STL 4-2 (finished)

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Injury Updates 🏥

• 2B Jeff McNeil left Friday’s game with a right wrist contusion and will undergo testing on Saturday

• RHP Paul Blackburn (right wrist contusion) will start for the Mets against the Blue Jays on Monday

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Who’s Hot 🔥

• Mark Vientos, MLB ranks among 3B (min. 350 PA): 152 wRC+ (1st) 3.0 fWAR (7th) 24 HR (7th) 62 RBI (9th) .905 OPS (1st). MLB ranks since May 15 among 3B: 149 wRC+ (1st) 23 HR (3rd) 49 R (10th) 60 RBI (5th) .897 OPS (3rd)

• Francisco Lindor singled in the first inning to extend his hitting streak to a career-high 16 games and his career-high on-base streak to 34 games. His on-base streak is tied with Pete Alonso (8/2/19 - 9/9/18) for the longest by a Met spanning a single season and for the fourth-longest ever in franchise history. Lindor’s hitting streak is the longest by a Met since Jeff McNeil hit safely in 16 games from July 1 - July 30, 2021

• The Mets bullpen own a stellar 0.72 ERA during their eight-game winning streak

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Down on the Farm 🌾

• OF Drew Gilbert (No. 3 prospect, Triple-A): 1-for-5, 1 R, 3 RBI, 1 HR

• SS Luisangel Acuña (No. 12 prospect, Triple-A): 2-for-5, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 SB

• OF Yolmer Sánchez (Triple-A): 2-for-4, 2 R, 2 RBI, 1 2B, 1 HR

• 3B Jeremiah Jackson (Double-A): 2-for-5, 2 R, 2 RBI, 1 HR, 1 SB

• RHP Jack Wenninger (No. 30 prospect, High-A): 6.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 10 K

• SS Colin Houck (No. 21 prospect, Single-A): 1-for-2, 2 RBI, 1 BB

BOX SCORES

Single-A STL | High-A BRK | Double-A BNG | Triple-A SYR

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Today’s Game 🗓

Match-up: Mets (77-64) vs. Reds (68-74)

Where: Citi Field - Flushing, NY

Starters: LHP José Quintana (7-9, 4.27 ERA) vs. RHP Jakob Junis (4-0, 3.13 ERA)

When: 4:10 PM EDT

Where to Watch: SNY

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Mark Vientos deserves all the flowers for his role in Mets’ turnaround… ✍️

NY Mets

It is sometimes easy to forget that others have contributed to this remarkable turnaround for the Mets given how dominant Francisco Lindor has been.

The shortstop has been playing at an elite MVP level for much of the year and, were it not for Shohei Ohtani creating more baseball history with the Dodgers, then Lindor probably would have the National League MVP wrapped up by now.

Anyway, there are more reasons than just Lindor as to why the Mets have been able to rise from the dead to be on the cusp of a postseason berth with just 21 games remaining.

And Mark Vientos is one of those reasons.

You could make a compelling argument that Vientos deserves nearly as much praise as Lindor for helping the Mets get back on track.

After all, Vientos has done nothing but rake since being called back up to the Major Leagues.

And, in doing so, he’s proved beyond any reasonable doubt that he should be a big part of this team’s future for the long-term.

He now has a .905 OPS on the year and is hitting .289/.342/.563 with 24 home runs, 20 doubles and 62 RBIs on the year.

Furthermore, Vientos has really turned it up when it has mattered the most. Over his last 22 games, he’s hitting .333/.385/.621/.1.006 with 15 runs scored, 29 hits, four doubles, seven home runs, seven walks and 18 RBIs.

Vientos’ ability to turn it on when the stakes are at their highest was none more evident than on Friday night. With every single win crucial, Vientos got the Mets on the board with a two-run blast in the first inning. Then, having also hit a single, the masher came up clutch with a walk-off two-run home run in the 10th inning to secure a season-best eighth straight win for the Mets.

USA TODAY SPORTS

It was Vientos’ second walk-off homer of the year. His eight-pitch at-bat in the 10th inning should also tell you something about just how locked in and confident the righty bat is right now.

You could certainly glean just how much Vientos means to this team from the frenzied celebrations that broke out after his extra-innings heroics.

Oh, and at 24 years and 270 days old, Vientos became the youngest player in Mets history with a multi-run home run game, including a walk-off homer. Plus, he became just only the second Met all-time to have a multi-homer game with a walk-off home run, with Curtis Granderson being the other.

All in all, Vientos hasn’t put a foot wrong since being called up on May 15. And it seems even more baffling now that he had to wait that long for an opportunity to impress in the bigs.

Vientos has taken his chance and run with it, and he’s been a key driving force behind this turnaround. While Lindor will go down as the headline act thanks to his season for the ages, Vientos deserves top billing too for the role he’s played in a truly incredible season thus far.

Plus, arguably one of the best hitting third basemen in the game right now, Vientos has also proved that he should be the guy for the Mets at the hot corner going forward.

Give Vientos all the flowers. Because, without him, the Mets probably wouldn’t be in the position they are right now.

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Around the League 🚩

• Max Fried threw seven innings of one-run ball to help the Braves beat the Blue Jays and remain tied with the Mets for the final NL Wild Card

• Manny Machado hit a pair of homers and finished with three RBIs and two runs scored as the Padres beat the Giants, 5-1

• Yordan Alvarez led the way with two homers and six RBIs as the Astros shutout the Diamondbacks, 8-0

• Shohei Ohtani blasted his 45th home run of the year to move a step closer to the elusive 50-50 club