The New York Mets (3-1) have defeated the Miami Marlins (2-3) by a score of 7-3 tonight at Marlins Park (Box Score). It was a battle of the lefties as Steven Matz faced off against Caleb Smith.
In what was an up and down night for the Mets offense, they would ultimately fight back several times while trailing. Their 9th inning rally was led by Amed Rosario‘s late clutch RBI single, which gave them the lead and was followed up by Pete Alonso‘s first career three-run homer to open up the game 7-3.
Pitching:
Steven Matz went five and a third allowing three runs, although only one was earned. Matz also allowed six hits, one home run, and recorded three strikeouts, as well.
Matz began the game by striking out Miguel Rojas, who would reach base on a passed ball by Ramos. Two batters later he would givie up a two run homer to Starlin Castro to give the fish an early 2-0 lead.
After settling down over the next four innings, Matz would run into trouble in the 6th due to a rough inning by third basemen J.D Davis. Rojas led off with a single and then Rosell Herrera would ground out to third on what should have been a double play. Instead Davis would send a weak throw over to Cano at second, which only got the lead runner out.
Next up, Brian Anderson singled to Lagares in center, whose arm was challenged by Rojas trying to take third. Juan fired a one hop throw to Davis, which beat the runner but wasn’t handled cleanly getting by the third basemen.
Matz would then surrender an RBI single to Starlin Castro on the next pitch, which just got under Davis’s glove at third to put the Marlins ahead 3-2. This would end Matz’s day as Mickey Callaway would bring in Tim Peterson and Nimmo on a double switch.
Peterson would then induce an inning ending double play to get out of trouble and limit the damage to only one run. Peterson pitched very well going 1.2 innings and only allowing one hit. Jeurys Familia would come on to pitch a clean 1-2-3 8th inning while recording a strikeout.
Callaway would bring in closer Edwin Diaz to pitch the 9th in a non save situation, which did not prove to be an easy outing. Diaz would load the bases with no outs, which brought the tying run up to the plate. Despite making it interesting in the end, Diaz recovered to strikeout the next three batters he faced to end the game.
Offense:
It was mostly a rough night for the Met offense, who struck out fifteen times as a team. The top three hitters in the order in Amed Rosario, Pete Alonso, and Robinson Cano recorded two hits and struck out a combined nine times. Despite their struggles these two hits proved to be the most important of the night.
After Caleb Smith struck out the side in the first inning, Michael Conforto (2-3) and Wilson Ramos (2-3) would smack back-to-back singles. This would bring Jeff McNeil to the plate, who would continue his hot streak by driving in Conforto with an RBI double.
In the 4th inning, J.D Davis led off with a double. Following a Conforto strikeout, Ramos would then move Davis over to the third on a groundout. This brought up McNeil once again, who did not have to play hero this time due to the fact that Davis would score in his at-bat on a wild pitch tying the game 2-2.
Smith went five innings, surrendering two runs on four hits while striking out eight batters.
The Mets would threaten again in the 6th inning on back-to-back two out singles from Conforto and Ramos. McNeil would come up in a big spot for the third time of the game, but did not come through striking out to end the inning.
Although the Marlins went ahead in the previous half inning, the Mets struck back in the 7th on a Juan Lagares (1) solo home run to even up the game at three a piece.
In the 8th inning, Davis would walk and Conforto was hit on the fore-arm with a pitch. This put runners on first and second with only one out for Ramos. Ramos would ultimately hit a liner off the pitchers glove and right to the second basemen, which turned a 4-6-3 into an inning ending double play.
In the top of the 9th, Dominic Smith would lead off the inning with a single to the left side of the infield by beating the shift. Lagares would then be hit on the hand with a pitch while trying to bunt, which put runners on first and second with no outs.
Next up, Brandon Nimmo would continue his struggles by striking out. Despite this strike out, Rosario would come through with a clutch RBI single to give the Mets the lead 4-3. Following this at-bat, Pete Alonso would smash his first career home run on a bomb to dead center to bust the game open 7-3.
On Deck:
Tomorrow Jason Vargas gets his first start of the season against Jose Urena. First pitch is at 7:10 p.m. ET and the game will be televised on SNY.
