For better or worse, Mets defined by homers

CINCINNATI — Live by it or die by it, the Mets are going to need the long ball in their push to the postseason.

New York had 189 homers entering Wednesday’s series finale in Cincinnati — the second most in the National League this season and the fourth most in one season in franchise history — and Jose Reyes led off the game with a blast on the first pitch. Ninety-two of those came on the road — sixth most in the Majors and seven short of the franchise record — and four those came on Tuesday. And, most importantly, nearly 54 percent of the Mets’ runs scored by the homer, and they were 63-36 when they hit one out, compared to 10-30 when they don’t.

“When you hit a home run, you get a chance to score a run,” outfielder Curtis Granderson said. “That’s the only play that scores a run guaranteed. Whether you do it or don’t, it’s never a bad thing. Players on this team or in the past couple years don’t go on saying, ‘We need to hit this many home runs to win today.’ We just put ourselves in a situation where we’re trying to …

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