CINCINNATI — Jacob deGrom’s chances of winning the NL Cy Young Award appear much greater than the Mets’ playoff odds, but that doesn’t mean the pitcher and his team can’t dream the dream.

The stud right-hander ran his scoreless streak to 16 innings Friday night, keeping the Mets — who have little room for error — from sinking in the NL wild-card race.

In case that wasn’t enough for one night, Pete Alonso slugged homer No. 50 in an 8-1 victory over the Reds at Great American Ball Park.

The victory was a third in four games for the Mets, who began the night 3 ½ games behind the Brewers in the race for the NL’s second wild card.

Alonso’s two-run rocket in the eighth against Sal Romano was the knockout punch, giving the Mets a five-run lead, on a night when deGrom fired seven shutout innings in which he allowed four hits and struck out nine. DeGrom’s ERA dropped from 2.61 to 2.51 as he battles Hyun-Jin Ryu, Mike Soroka and Max Scherzer, among others, in the Cy Young race. Ryu began the night as the NL leader in ERA at 2.35.

Alonso needs only two homers to tie Aaron Judge’s rookie record. Alonso is two ahead of the Reds’ Eugenio Suarez for the MLB lead in homers.

Reds ace Luis Castillo was a formidable foe, but the right-hander cracked in the later innings. Overall, he went seven innings and allowed three earned runs on three hits with seven strikeouts and three walks.

Castillo had allowed only two homers in his previous five starts combined, but Jeff McNeil and Amed Rosario equaled that with a blast apiece, accounting for the Mets’ runs before Alonso homered.

Rosario gave the Mets a cushion with a two-run homer against Castillo in the seventh that extended the Mets’ lead to 3-0. With two outs, J.D. Davis walked before Rosario cleared the fence in left-center for his 14th homer of the season.

McNeil’s homer in the sixth was only the Mets’ second hit against Castillo and provided a 1-0 lead. The blast was McNeil’s 23rd of the season and third on the road trip.

Castillo had plowed through five innings, allowing only a single to Wilson Ramos in the second and walks to Brandon Nimmo and Michael Conforto in the third and fifth innings, respectively.

The biggest early threat against deGrom came in the fourth, when Aristides Aquino singled and stole second with one out. But deGrom retired the next two batters to keep the game scoreless.

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