Starling Marte provided an early lead with a first-inning, two-run homer and starter Chris Bassitt allowed one unearned run over eight strong innings to lead the New York Mets past the visiting Cincinnati Reds 5-1 on Monday night.

Bassitt (9-7) scattered eight singles, struck out eight and walked one in posting his ninth straight start of at least six innings, including eight quality starts.

Former Reds outfielder Tyler Naquin, facing his former team for the first time since a deadline trade, continued his hot hitting for the Mets with a two-run triple in the eighth inning.

Right-hander Justin Dunn (0-1) made his Reds debut after getting recalled from Triple-A Louisville for Monday’s start.

Dunn, acquired by the Reds on March 14 in the deal that sent Jesse Winker and Eugenio Suarez to Seattle, was making his first start in the major leagues since June 17, 2021.

Dunn hit Brandon Nimmo to open the first. Marte followed by drilling a 1-0 pitch over 400 feet to the seats in left-center field for his 12th homer of the season.

The Mets added another run in the third on a Daniel Vogelbach RBI single, scoring Francisco Lindor, who had walked earlier in the inning.

The Reds scratched across a run in the fourth when Joey Votto’s fielder’s choice to second base scored Nick Senzel with one out, cutting the score to 3-1.

Earlier in the inning, the Reds sustained two significant injuries as Jonathan India reaggravated the right hamstring that he injured in April when he reached on a Pete Alonso error.

Two batters later, Mike Moustakas lined a single to the left-center-field gap. As he rounded first, Moustakas pulled up short and circled back to the base. He was later diagnosed with a left calf strain.

Both came out of the game before the bottom of the fourth.

Albert Almora Jr. robbed Francisco Lindor of a two-run home run by leaping and reaching over the center field wall to bring the ball back for the first out of the fifth inning.

After escaping a two-out, bases-loaded jam in the sixth, Bassitt worked out of another jam in the seventh. Senzel reached on catcher’s interference with two outs to put runners on first and second, but Bassitt retired Matt Reynolds on a flyout to right to end the threat.

–Field Level Media