By Hal McCoy
It was not a memorable Memorial Day for New York Mets rookie wunderkind pitcher Nolan McLean.
It couldn’t have started better. He struck out the side to begin his day in Citi Field against the Cincinnati Reds.
Then. . .total dismantlement by the Reds as they spent the second, third and fourth innings as happy as a kid opening Christmas presents.
They scored two, one and four against McLean on their way to a 7-2victory.
It almost seems unfair. The Mets’ payroll is $383 million, second highest to the Los Angeles Dodgers, but the majority of that resides on the injured list.
Six regulars, four relief pitchers and two starting pitchers are on the injured list — regulars Francisco Lindor, Francisco Alvarez, Jorge Polanco, Luis Roberts Jr., Jacob Young and Ronnie Mauricio.
And Juan Soto was out of the lineup with an illness.
There was no sympathy or empathy emanating from the Reds dugout as they listened to the Citi Field crowd vociferously boo the home team for its ineptitude.
After McLean struck out Blake Dunn, Elly De La Cruz and JJ Bleday in the first inning, he hit Sal Stewart with an 0-2 pitch to open the second and the runs gate swung wide open.
Eugenio Suarez singled and Nate Lowe walked to fill the bases. A couple of fielder’s choice ground balls gave the Reds a 2-0 lead.
With two outs in the second, Bleday and his seemingly remote-controlled perfect swing, launched a 409-foot home run and it was 3-0.
It all fell apart for McLean in the fourth when he opened the inning by walking Suarez and the Reds batted around for four runs.
Spencer Steer ripped a two-run single up the middle and Tyler Stephenson pulled a two-run home run down the left field line.
Stephenson’s new-look paid off. For the first time in his career he wore his pants pulled high so that his red socks were prominently displayed.
What wasn’t displayed was that under his uniform Stephenson wore the Tito Speedo underwear. The Speedos, adorned with Francona’s face all over them, were presented to Francona by Stephenson during spring training.
And it wasn’t the first time Stephenson manned the Speedos.
“It started with the second game in Philly,” he said. “They’ve been passed around and they showed up in my locker. We’re 4-1 since then so I guess we got to see where they take us.”
Francona was asked if the Speedos bring his team luck and he said, “If it ain’t broke. . .I don’t think it’s luck. I just think they like ‘em.”
It wasn’t all roses as it might seem, though, while the Reds were winning their fourth game in their last five.
They struck out 15 times, four by De La Cruz and three by Stephenson. They made the most out of only five hits.
They were 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position and 15 of the last 16 made outs.
The beneficiary of the Reds’ early offensive spurt was starter Nick Lodolo. He pitched six innings and gave up one run, six hits, walked nobody and struck out seven.
The only dent put into Lodolo’s day was a leadoff home run by Marcus Semien in the sixth. Lodolo then retired the next three and his 98-pitch day was done.
While he didn’t walk anybody, he did hit Carson Benge twice with pitches,
“Other than he hit their leadoff man (Benge) twice with two breaking balls almost behind him, he worked ahead, threw a lot strikes, he spotted, he had good velocity, threw some change-ups. All that was really welcome,” said Francona.
The Mets came home after being swept three games in Miami by the Marlins and they had scored four runs in their last four games.
Other than Lodolo’s day, the most encouraging facet was two hits and a walk by just-returned Suarez. He scored a run in the second and another in the fourth and led the fifth with a double, the Reds’ last hit of the game.
Francona is most appreciative of Suarez’s return into the middle of the lineup.
“Just having him around, his personality, his enthusiasm, his everything that everybody talked about,” he said. “He is just a really good kid, a great teammate. He’ll hit some balls out of the ball park and I thought he swung a lot better today.”
Suarez started the four-run fourth with a walk and came around to score.
“We haven’t done that enougho (a big inning),” said Francona. “I actually wish we’d done that a little bit more. We had some good at bats.
“Steer had the big hit up the middle to get it going (two-run single).”
And of the two-run second, he said, “Lowe took a walk (on a full count to loed the bases) and that was big and glossed over,” he added.
The bullpen finished with a flourish.
After Brock Blake gave up a run in the seventh, Sam Moll struck out the side in the eighth, then Graham Ashcraft struck out the first two in the ninth and ended the game on a weak ground ball.