Juan Soto Leads Mets Into Reds - Mets Series at Citi Field
The reds - mets series opens at Citi Field with the New York Mets trying to stop a slide that has left them at 22-31. They scored two runs over three games against the Marlins, so this three-game set with Cincinnati arrives as a direct chance to change the tone.
Juan Soto and the Mets
Juan Soto is part of a season the Mets cannot afford to waste. The club won the Subway Series and split with the Nationals, but the offense did little in Miami and the record still sits nine games under.500.
Injuries have helped shape that picture. Francisco Lindor, Clay Holmes, Francisco Alvarez, Kodai Senga, Luis Robert Jr, Jorge Polanco, Ronny Mauricio, Young, and Mike Tauchman have all gone down, leaving the roster thinner than it was earlier in the year.
Senga, A.J. Minter, and Young are all fairly close to a return. Lindor has drawn some optimism for a late June comeback, while Alvarez is viewed as more likely to return closer to the All-Star Break.
Reds Carry a Better Record
Cincinnati arrives at 27-25 and has already shaken off its worst stretch of May. The Reds were 7-14 in the month after losing eight in a row earlier in May, including three straight walk-off defeats by the Cubs.
That run is over, and the trip to Queens offers a cleaner read on where they stand now. The Reds still have to show the hard stretch did not pull them backward for good, but the record gives them a cushion the Mets do not have.
Elly De La Cruz and Chase Burns
Elly De La Cruz has 25 extra base hits and nine stolen bases. Sal Stewart has 21 extra base hits and ten stolen bases, and Chase Burns is in the Cy Young conversation.
Those numbers give Cincinnati a different shape than the Mets, whose immediate concern is simply getting enough offense to support a rotation and lineup missing too many regulars. At Citi Field, the first game of the three-game series will show whether New York can use home field to slow the drift or whether Cincinnati keeps moving past its early-month stumble.
