Lugo dominates in Mets win

Seth Lugo produced one of his strongest starts of the season for the Mets on Friday: six scoreless innings, four hits.

So naturally the Mets want to curtail his pitch count and keep him at 75-80 pitches in what’s left of the season.

“We want him to finish this year feeling good and feeling strong and realizing he’s got some work ahead to strengthen up his shoulder and his elbow but he’s going to be OK and that he can still pitch,” said manager Terry Collins after the Mets won their third straight game and beat the Reds, 5-1, at Citi Field on Friday. “So we’re going to keep a close eye on him.”

Collins wanted Lugo (6-4) to go 70-75 pitches. Lugo, who started the season on the disabled list with a slight tear in the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow and then experienced recent shoulder soreness, threw 84 pitches while walking one and striking out four in his first win since July 25.

“I felt like my last couple starts I was making good pitches later in the game,” said Lugo, who was supported by three homers — two by Jose Reyes (making him the 13th player with 100plus homers as a Met, with 101) and the first of Travis Taijeron’s career. “I just trusted that sooner or later those balls were going to be hit at somebody and today they were.”

This is how the Mets were supposed to win this year: strong starting pitching and home-run power.

Of course, they weren’t supposed to be 25 games out of first place and spinning their wheels, but that’s another story.

Taijeron smacked a solo shot in the second against Reds lefty Amir Garrett (3-7), the former St. John’s basketball player. Reyes added a solo shot in the third and a two-run blast in the fifth when the Mets made it 4-0. The Mets went up, 5-0, by tacking on an unearned run in the sixth, helped by Scooter Gennett’s errant throw home. Zack Cozart’s bases loaded sac fly in the ninth gave the Reds their run.

Shortstop Amed Rosario missed a fifth straight game. The swelling in his bruised right index finger is down, but he’s still listed as day-to-day. Rosario did some throwing Friday and is expected to hit Saturday.

Elsewhere, Asdrubal Cabrera, who felt discomfort in his left glute Thursday, also was day-to-day after undergoing an MRI exam.

Noah Syndergaard, after 36 pitches for Brooklyn Class-A on Thursday, is scheduled to throw approximately 50 pitches in a simulated game in his next outing. There was no set date for that.