NEW YORK -- In nearly every situation imaginable, Edwin Díaz is elite. Save situation? He’s a lockdown closer. Ahead in the game? He’s lights-out. Trailing by a run or two? He’ll keep it close.

There is something about tie games, however, that bedevils Diaz. Entering Wednesday’s play, he had appeared in 35 of them in his career, allowing opposing hitters to crush him for a slash line of .336/.408/1.003. In save situations, those numbers fall to .162/.241/.244.

Perhaps it’s a statistical quirk, as Mets manager Mickey Callaway posited. Perhaps it’s something more. In either event, that history bled into the current day when Diaz allowed a go-ahead home run to Jose Iglesias in the ninth inning, sending the Mets to a 1-0 loss to the Reds at Citi Field. It marked the second time in three days Diaz had given up a go-ahead homer in the ninth.

“I’m not really sure,” he said when asked about his struggles with the score knotted. “I try to do the same thing every single time, with the same type of effectiveness and results. I just have to keep working on that, I guess, because when I’m closing and when I’m going into a tie game, my approach is the same way.”

There are plenty of reasons for the Mets to be unconcerned about Diaz, one of their highest-profile offseason acquisitions -- starting with his elite strikeout rate of 43 percent. In save situations, Diaz is a perfect eight-for-eight, after going 57-for-61 with the Mariners last season. He’s throwing his fastball an average of 97 mph, and he has walked just two batters all season.

There are also reasons for mild concern, though. Chief among them is that Iglesias’ homer was the third Diaz has allowed in 12 2/3 innings, after he gave up merely five last season. He’s allowing long balls nearly three-and-a-half times more often than he did a year ago, albeit in an extremely small sample.

Wednesday, Diaz opened the ninth the same way he had in Monday’s loss, with two quick outs. Iglesias then took a ball and a strike, before curling a hanging slider just inside the left-field foul pole. As he watched it land, Diaz clenched his fist, yelling to himself on the mound.

“I’m mad,” Diaz said afterward. “I need to make a better pitch.”

Particularly given the injuries to setup men Jeurys Familia and Justin Wilson, both of whom are on the injured list, the Mets need Diaz to keep the ball in the park now more than ever -- regardless of the score.

“It’s rare,” Callaway said. “I’m sure it’s going to continue to be rare. But it’s a little stunning.”

deGrominant again

After Iglesias’ homer, the Mets went down in order in the ninth, prompting outfielder Jesse Winker to wave at fans after making a game-ending catch down the left-field line.

While that reaction garnered plenty of buzz on social media, the Mets were more interested in a different sort of feedback. In the fourth inning, after striking out against Jacob deGrom, Eugenio Suarez smacked his bat with his hand in frustration. Moments later, Yasiel Puig whiffed for the second time and snapped his lumber in half across his thigh.

Those are the types of reactions deGrom could not generate in his previous three starts, when he went 0-3 with a 9.69 ERA. They are also the types that guided his game plan Wednesday: loads of fastballs early, followed by changeups -- as many as four in a row to Winker in the sixth inning -- and sliders late. Throughout the game, deGrom read the Reds’ swings before choosing his pitches.

“They got frustrated,” deGrom said. “I was just trying to make pitches when I needed to.”

For the first time in four starts, deGrom did so consistently, relying on a mechanical tweak that helped him stay balanced over the pitching rubber. He did not allow a hit until the fifth and gave up just three on the night, working with backup catcher Tomas Nido in what could become a regular battery. All told, deGrom blanked the Reds for seven innings.

“It’s definitely a relief,” deGrom said. “Nobody wants to go out there and stink. … I felt like I was pretty close to where I want to be.”

Back in the show

When reliever Ryan O’Rourke took the mound in the eighth mere hours after arriving at Citi Field, he completed a journey two-and-a-half years in the making. For the first time since Oct. 2016, O’Rourke was pitching in a big league game.

The time between appearances was fraught with worry for O’Rourke, who underwent Tommy John surgery and struggled to rehab from that injury. The lefty reliever bounced from the Twins to the Orioles to the Mets organization, nearly making the club out of Spring Training but landing at Triple-A Syracuse on Opening Day, instead.

Back in the big leagues, O’Rourke’s first assignment was former National League MVP Joey Votto, who struck out looking. He recorded two outs and walked a batter, returning to the clubhouse after the game to find dozens of messages on his cell phone.

“It’s just crazy,” said O’Rourke, who replaced Familia on the roster. “This game’s taken me to a lot of places, to different countries. To have the injury and then to finally make it all the way back, I really can’t even describe it. … There’s a lot of people rooting for me and it matters for a lot of them, as well, because there’s a lot of people who had a big part of it.”