CINCINNATI — Sleep is overrated, anyway.
After pulling close to an all-nighter, the Mets arrived at Great American Ball Park on Monday with the equivalent of a hangover, but still fielded a potent enough lineup to maintain recent momentum.
Whether it was Matt Reynolds delivering key hits following his red-eye adventure from Salt Lake City or Kelly Johnson going deep in a start for Jose Reyes, the Mets had plenty of answers in a 5-0 victory over the Reds that extended their winning streak to three games.
“It was just a win on so many different levels,” Johnson said. “Obviously, tough scheduling — everyone knows that — but you deal with it and suck it up and try to get rest. A big win was being able to get some guys off their feet and let them rest and Bartolo [Colon] did what he does and made it easy on us.”
After playing the nationally televised Sunday night game, the Mets didn’t arrive into town until after 3 a.m. for a Labor Day matinee that would begin less than 10 hours later. Manager Terry Collins was at the ballpark around 8 a.m. and constructed a lineup that had veterans Yoenis Cespedes, Asdrubal Cabrera, Reyes and Curtis Granderson on the bench for rest. But the Mets (72-66) easily survived, with Colon — who flew ahead of the team to get his full rest — more than comfortable facing these downtrodden Reds.
Colon (13-7) pitched six shutout innings in which he allowed five hits and one walk to win his third straight decision. The 43-year-old righty improved to 8-4 on the road.
“If you don’t learn stuff by watching him pitch, you’ve wasted your time here,” Collins said.
Colon escaped a jam in the sixth, retiring Adam Duvall to keep the Mets’ lead at 2-0 after pinch-hitter Hernan Iribarren stroked a leadoff triple. A two-out walk to Joey Votto brought pitching coach Dan Warthen to the mound, but Colon rebounded to get Duvall for the final out.
It was Colon’s second big escape of the game: In the fourth he allowed a double to Tucker Barnhart that put runners on second and third with nobody out before retiring three straight batters without a run scoring.
Reynolds homered to give the Mets their first run and delivered an RBI single during a three-run seventh inning. The rookie, who was recalled from Triple-A Las Vegas, boarded an 11 p.m. flight in Salt Lake City that landed in Boston at 6 a.m. He then caught a connection that landed around 8:30 a.m. and took a nap at the team hotel for about 30 minutes before reporting to the ballpark. He estimates he got 1 ½ hours of sleep, maximum, throughout the journey.
“If I keep hitting like that, I’m going to keep taking those red eyes,” Reynolds said.
Cabrera’s pinch-hit RBI single and Alejandro De Aza’s sacrifice fly in the seventh built the rest of the Mets’ cushion.
Johnson’s homer leading off the fifth extended the Mets’ lead to 2-0. The homer was Johnson’s ninth in 64 games since returning to the Mets in a trade with the Braves on June 8.
Reynolds, who slept for about 45 minutes in the team hotel before arriving to the ballpark, homered in the second to give the Mets their first run against Robert Stephenson.
“I think everyone that came here in the lineup was ready to roll and had a good attitude about it and wasn’t sitting there [complaining],” Johnson said. “That was a very good game — good day, to turn that into a huge positive.”