CINCINNATI (AP) — Mark Vientos homered and Edwin Díaz escaped a major jam in the ninth inning as the New York Mets held off the fading Cincinnati Reds 5-4 on Friday night in the opener of a pivotal three-game series.
Cincinnati (70-71) fell six games behind the Mets for the last National League wild card with 21 remaining. New York leads San Francisco by four games for the final playoff spot.
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Cincinnati Reds pitcher Andrew Abbott delivers in the second inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Michael Swensen)
New York Mets pitcher David Peterson delivers in the second inning of a baseball game against Cincinnati Reds, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Michael Swensen)
Cincinnati Reds' Spencer Steer rounds third base in the fourth inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Michael Swensen)
New York Mets Francisco Lindor, center, points at the bench after making it to second base in the third inning of a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Michael Swensen)
New York Mets' Juan Soto (22) celebrates after hitting a double in the third inning of a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Michael Swensen)
Vientos drove in two runs and scored two more to help the Mets win for the seventh time in 11 games. Francisco Lindor drew three walks in the leadoff spot and also scored twice.
Díaz entered in the ninth and allowed a single to Ke'Bryan Hayes before walking the next two batters to load the bases with nobody out. But the All-Star closer struck out Noelvi Marte and Elly De La Cruz, then got Gavin Lux to ground out to second for his 26th save.
In the middle of it all, Díaz called to the dugout for a new pair of spikes and changed shoes right there on the field.
Cincinnati has lost 11 of 14.
The Mets scored all their runs in the first four innings off starter Andrew Abbott (8-6). Consecutive doubles by Lindor and Juan Soto made it 5-1 in the fourth.
Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson, just off the injured list, slammed a two-run double in the bottom half and raced home on Hayes’ sacrifice fly to cut it to 5-4.
David Peterson (9-5) allowed four runs and seven hits through 5 1/3 innings. New York's bullpen shut out the Reds the rest of the way.
Vientos led off the third with his 16th homer to give the Mets a 4-0 lead. He also knocked in a run with an infield single in a three-run first.
Cincinnati went 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position. Matt McLain struck out with the bases loaded to end the sixth.
Prized prospect Jonah Tong (1-0, 1.80 ERA) makes his second major league start Saturday night for the Mets against Reds right-hander Brady Singer (12-9, 4.08).
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Cincinnati Reds pitcher Andrew Abbott delivers in the second inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Michael Swensen)
New York Mets pitcher David Peterson delivers in the second inning of a baseball game against Cincinnati Reds, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Michael Swensen)
Cincinnati Reds' Spencer Steer rounds third base in the fourth inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Michael Swensen)
New York Mets Francisco Lindor, center, points at the bench after making it to second base in the third inning of a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Michael Swensen)
New York Mets' Juan Soto (22) celebrates after hitting a double in the third inning of a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Michael Swensen)
BEIJING (AP) — In China, the names of things are often either ornately poetic or jarringly direct. A new, wildly popular app among young Chinese people is definitively the latter.
It's called, simply, “Are You Dead?"
In a vast country whose young people are increasingly on the move, the new, one-button app — which has taken the country by digital storm this month — is essentially exactly what it says it is. People who live alone in far-off cities and may be at risk — or just perceived as such by friends or relatives — can push an outsized green circle on their phone screens and send proof of life over the network to a friend or loved one. The cost: 8 yuan (about $1.10).
It's simple and straightforward — essentially a 21st-century Chinese digital version of those American pendants with an alert button on them for senior citizens that gave birth to the famed TV commercial: “I've fallen, and I can't get up!”
Developed by three young people in their 20s, “Are You Dead?” became the most downloaded paid app on the Apple App Store in China last week, according to local media reports. It is also becoming a top download in places as diverse as Singapore and the Netherlands, Britain and India and the United States — in line with the developers' attitude that loneliness and safety aren't just Chinese issues.
“Every country has young people who move to big cities to chase their dreams,” Ian Lü, 29, one of the app's developers, said Thursday.
Lü, who worked and lived alone in the southern city of Shenzhen for five years, experienced such loneliness himself. He said the need for a frictionless check-in is especially strong among introverts. “It's unrealistic,” he said, “to message people every day just to tell them you're still alive.”
Against the backdrop of modern and increasingly frenetic Chinese life, the market for the app is understandable.
Traditionally, Chinese families have tended to live together or at least in close proximity across generations — something embedded deep in the nation's culture until recent years. That has changed in the last few decades with urbanization and rapid economic growth that have sent many Chinese to join what is effectively a diaspora within their own nation — and taken hundreds of millions far from parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles.
Today, the country has more than 100 million households with only one person, according to an annual report from the National Bureau of Statistics of China in 2024.
Consider Chen Xingyu, 32, who has lived on her own for years in Kunming, the capital of southern China’s Yunnan province. “It is new and funny. The name ’Are You Dead?' is very interesting,” Chen said.
Chen, a “lying flat” practitioner who has rejected the grueling, fast-paced career of many in her age group, would try the app but worries about data security. “Assuming many who want to try are women users, if information of such detail about users gets leaked, that’d be terrible,” she said.
Yuan Sangsang, a Shanghai designer, has been living on her own for a decade and describes herself as a “single cow and horse.” She's not hoping the app will save her life — only help her relatives in the event that she does, in fact, expire alone.
"I just don’t want to die with no dignity, like the body gets rotten and smelly before it is found," said Yuan, 38. “That would be unfair for the ones who have to deal with it.”
While such an app might at first seem best suited to elderly people — regardless of their smartphone literacy — all reports indicate that “Are You Dead?” is being snapped up by younger people as the wry equivalent of a social media check-in.
“Some netizens say that the 'Are you dead?' greeting feels like a carefree joke between close friends — both heartfelt and gives a sense of unguarded ease,” the business website Yicai, the Chinese Business Network, said in a commentary. ""It likely explains why so many young people unanimously like this app."
The commentary, by writer He Tao, went further in analyzing the cultural landscape. He wrote that the app's immediate success “serves as a darkly humorous social metaphor, reminding us to pay attention to the living conditions and inner world of contemporary young people. Those who downloaded it clearly need more than just a functional security measure; they crave a signal of being seen and understood.”
Death is a taboo subject in Chinese culture, and the word itself is shunned to the point where many buildings in China have no fourth floor because the word for “four” and the word for “death” sound the same — “si.” Lü acknowledged that the app's name sparked public pressure.
“Death is an issue every one of us has to face,” he said. “Only when you truly understand death do you start thinking about how long you can exist in this world, and how you want to realize the value of your life.”
A few days ago, though, the developers said on their official account on China’s Weibo social platform that they’d pivot to a new name. Their choice: the more cryptic “Demumu,” which they said they hoped could "serve more solo dwellers globally.”
Then, a twist: Late Wednesday, the app team posted on its Weibo account that workshopping the name Demumu didn’t turn out “as well as expected.” The app team is offering a reward for whoever offers a new name that will be picked this weekend. Lü said more than 10,000 people have weighed in.
The reward for the new moniker: $96 — or, in China, 666 yuan.
Fu Ting reported from Washington. AP researcher Shihuan Chen in Beijing contributed.
The app Are You Dead? is seen on a smartphone in Beijing, China, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
A woman looks at her smartphone in a cafe in Beijing, China, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
A woman looks at her smartphone outside a restaurant in Beijing, China, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
A man looks down near his smartphone in Beijing, China, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
A man reacts while holding his smartphone in Beijing, China, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
