Reds head to Big Apple to sock homers off Mets pitching

You are likely aware of the plight of the New York Mets. Not the plight of the New York Mets in perpetuity in this instance, but the plight of the 2023 New York Mets.

They spent big. They spent huge. Then, they spent some more, eventually pushing their season’s payroll into levels only seen by Elon Musk when trying to buy companies he’d like to destroy.

Things went sideways early and often, however, and by the time the trade deadline rolled around owner Steve Cohen had seen enough of his big-spending experiment. He dealt away Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, and Mark Canha and their big-money deals, while also flipping away Tommy Pham and David Robertson, too. Still, the Mets have seven players operating on deals that guarantee them more than $50 million, a number that’s bested by only one current Cincinnati Reds player - Hunter Greene.

It’ll be Greene that leads the playoff-hungry Reds against the 68-78 Mets in the series opener between these two clubs at whatever they call the stadium that replaced Shea. And when that series begins, expect to see all sorts of graphics and plaudits for the Reds operating on a shoestring budget and having success at the big league level with league-minimum youngsters while the expensive, elder Mets fall by the wayside. It’s a narrative! We’ll hear all about it!

(The Reds should really trade for Pete Alonso this winter. I digress.)

Anyway, the Reds will face lefty David Peterson to begin things this evening, so we’ll once again see Joey Votto on the bench to start because that’s just how David Bell likes to ruin things for everyone. It’ll be a cadre of righties, for the time being, until they all surely get their chances later in the game when Bell plays flippy-floppy.

First pitch is set for 7:10 PM ET in this one, because in New York they know that evening baseball games should never start before 7 PM ET.

Go Reds.

Reds Lineup

Mets Lineup