The New York Mets (45-37) won their fifth straight game on Monday afternoon, beating the Miami Marlins (43-40) by a score of 8-6 at Citi Field. The Independence Day win and the Washington Nationals loss pulls the Mets to within 4 games of first place.
Early in the game, it was all Marlins. Matt Harvey struggled mightily for the Mets, allowing 6 runs on 11 hits in 3.2 innings.
The Fish jumped out to an early lead in the top of the second, when Giancarlo Stanton singled, moved to second on a wild throw in from Brandon Nimmo, and scored on a two-out hit from Chris Johnson. Johnson appeared to get tagged out trying to stretch a single into a double, but was deemed to be safe at second on replay and the inning continued. Miami capitalized, scoring a second run on a double by Adeiny Hechavarria and a third on a single from pitcher Tom Koehler.
After the Mets left the bases loaded in the third (thanks to some bad baserunning by Curtis Granderson and some good defens by the Marlins), Harvey ran into trouble again in the fourth as Miami loaded the bases with 1 out. Martin Prado then hit one right back to Harvey for what should have been an inning-ending double-play, but Harvey’s throw home was wild and a run scored to make it 4-0 while the bases remained loaded. Christian Yelich then knocked in two more runs with a single, and while the Mets got an out on the basepaths on the play, Harvey’s day was done and the Mets were down 6-0.
After Erik Goeddel got an out in relief to end the top of the fourth, Travis d’Arnaud hit a solo shot in the bottom of the frame to chip away at the deficit and make it 6-1. Logan Verrett tossed a scoreless top of the fifth and another solo home run, this one off the bat of Curtis Granderson, cut the gap to 6-2. Some more bad baserunning, this time by Cespedes, cost the Mets a chance to do some more damage, but that damage was on the way.
Verrett worked in and out of trouble in the top of the sixth and the Mets loaded the bases with none out in the bottom of the inning against the Marlins bullpen. D’Arnaud came through again with an RBI single up the middle to make it 6-3, and Kelly Johnson hit a double-play ball that, while stalling the rally, drove in a fourth run.
After Hansel Robles pitched a clean top of the seventh, the Mets got going again in the bottom half with a leadoff walk from Neil Walker and a double from Cespedes. James Loney drove in a run and moved Cespedes to third with a grounder to the right side, and after an intentional walk to Asdrubal Cabrera, Wilmer Flores tied the game with a sacrifice fly to center that enabled Cespedes to cross the Delaware plate.
Robles got himself into a jam in the top of the 8th when Ichiro Suzuki hit a leadoff double and JT Realmuto walked while trying to bunt, but the Mets came up with a huge defensive play, turning a 3-5-4 double-play on a Prado bunt to get 2 outs with the go-ahead run moving to 2nd base. Jerry Blevins came in to face Yelich and, after Realmuto stole third base, the lanky lefty struck out the young Marlins star to keep the game tied.
Newly acquired Fernando Rodney came in to pitch the bottom of the eighth for the Marlins, and there would be no celebrating for the demonstrative righty on this day. D’Arnaud led off with a single and Lagares moved him over with a bunt (Lagares was initially called safe at first when the umpire said Derek Dietrich dropped the ball, but after an NFL-like “what is a catch?” review, the call was overturned. Granderson then flied out and Walker drew another walk. With runners on 1st and 2nd and 2 out, Cespedes hit a double into the gap to score a pair and give the Mets their first lead of the day at 8-6.
Jeurys Familia made things interesting in the top of the ninth, but got a double-play ball to end the game and pick up his MLB-leading 29th save of the year in as many tries.
What a game! The Mets have struggled to pull off comebacks this season, but chipped away at an early 6-0 deficit and it paid off.
Harvey really struggled in this game, but with several good outings preceding this rocky performance, the panic is unjustified. The bullpen, meanwhile, did a heck of a job. Jerry Blevins has been getting some huge outs lately, and he’s showing more emotion each time out. Familia rarely makes it easy in a save situation, but he gets the job done every time, and that’s what matters.
Travis D’Arnaud is hitting very well of late. The guy is a great player, and his only issue is the injuries. If he can stay healthy, he’s one of the best hitting catchers in the game, and I’d like to see him hitting higher in the lineup than 8th.
Granderson has two homers in two games since coming back from that calf injury, and if the Mets can really get him going, that would be huge. He’d been hitting better before the injury, so this is a good sign.
Wilmer Flores always seems to get the job done when the team needs it the most. He put up a great at-bat in the seventh and finally came through with the fly ball the Mets needed to tie the game.
You can’t really talk about the offense without talking about Yoenis Cespedes. The guy is an unbelievable hitter and he came up big today, especially with the double that proved to be the game-winning hit.
The Mets haven’t lost since David Wright returned to the stadium. This is a fact.
I’m pumped. Happy Fourth, and Let’s Go Mets!
The Mets will look to keep on rolling Tuesday Night at Citi Field. Wei-Yin Chen will pitch for Miami, while New York will counter with a southpaw of their own in Steven Matz.
