The New York Mets (46-38) defeated the Miami Marlins (43-41) by a score of 4-2 on Wednesday afternoon at Citi Field. This puts the Mets 3 1/2 games out of first place in the division, with the Nationals and Brewers game still to be decided.
Pitching:
Jacob deGrom pitched very well to everyone except Giancarlo Stanton, who crushed two mammoth solo home runs off him. Overall, deGrom pitched 7.0 innings, allowing two earned runs on six hits while walking two and striking out seven.
Addison Reed pitched a perfect 8th, striking out one, and then All Star Jeurys Familia came in to pitch the 9th with a 4-2 lead. He struck out Stanton, who had homered in his previous four at-bats, before allowing a base hit to Chris Johnson.
Then pinch hitter Ichiro Suzuki grounded into a double play to end the game, with La Familia notching his 30th save of the year. More on this play in the notes section, because it got complicated.
Offense:
Three Mets combined for the Mets’ six hits on the day. Jose Reyes, batting leadoff and playing shortstop in the place of the late-scratched Asdrubal Cabrera, smacked two doubles and scored a run.
Wilmer Flores continued his hot hitting with two solo home runs in the second and fourth innings. The homers were his sixth and seventh of the season, and it’s his second two-homer game this week.
Curtis Granderson, batting second today, singled in the 3rd to score Jacob deGrom and Jose Reyes. He also singled in the 5th inning, but those were all the hits the Mets would muster.
Notes:
Despite Marlins manager Don Mattingly having lost his challenge earlier in the game, he saw something he didn’t like on the game-ending double play. He thought Neil Walker‘s foot was not on second base during the play, and the replays showed it probably wasn’t. However there was not enough evidence to overturn the “out” call on the field.
The umpires didn’t see anything wrong with the play at first, and only looked at it once Mattingly asked them to. This seemed to run counter to the challenge rules because Mattingly had lost his earlier challenge, and thus the only possible review in this situation should be one called for by the umpires and the manager.
Giancarlo Stanton homered in four straight at-bats, tying the Major League record. His home runs combined for over 1,700 feet.
On Deck:
The Mets will send Big Sexy Bartolo Colon (7-4, 2.87 ERA) to face off against the Nationals’ Lucas Giolito (0-0, 0.00 ERA) Thursday night at 7:10 PM at Citi Field.
