The Mets (15-7) fell by a score of 7-3 to the Marlins (10-12) on Wednesday night in Miami, dropping their second straight series and their fourth of their last six games.
Bartolo Colon pitched for the Mets and struggled a bit, although he kept his team in the game. Colon went 6.2 innings, allowing four runs on nine hits, striking out two batters and, as usual, walking none. But The Old Man lost to the Marlins in this one, seeing his four-game win streak snapped.
Both teams put up a pair in the first inning. After Lucas Duda singled with two outs against Mat Latos, Michael Cuddyer connected on a homer to left center. I would call it a “bomb,” but then I wouldn’t have anything fit to describe the shot that Giancarlo Stanton hit in the bottom of the inning. With Martin Prado on first, Stanton absolutely crushed one to left to even up the game. Colon then allowed a double to Marcell Ozuna, but escaped the inning without further damage.
The Mets added another run in the top of the third. Curtis Granderson doubled leading off the inning, and a pair of groundouts plated him to put New York up 3-2.
Miami tied it again in the bottom of the fifth. Bartolo allowed a single to his opposite number Latos, although the Marlins pitcher pulled a hamstring running to first and had to leave the game. Donovan Solano pinch-ran for Latos and moved to second when the red-hot Gordon singled. Colon got Prado to hit into a double-play, but Solano moved to third and then scored on an RBI infield single from Stanton.
The Marlins took the lead in the bottom of the seventh against Colon. Adeiny Hechavarria doubled to lead off the frame, and moved to third on a bunt. Gordon then drove Hech in with a sacrifice fly that put the Fish up 4-3, and Terry Collins pulled Bartolo after Martin Prado followed with a single.
The first man out of the pen was rookie Hansel Robles, who was brought in to face Giancarlo. Robles Hansel-ed the situation (I’ll be here all week), putting a fastball by the Masked Man to retire the side.
Juan Lagares led off the top of the eighth with a walk to put the tying run aboard, but Lucas Duda killed the rally before it could get started, hitting into a double-play. Michael Cuddyer reached on an infield single (after Collins challenged and had an “out” call overturned, but Daniel Murphy grounded out to strand the veteran.
The Marlins blew the game open in the bottom of the eighth. Ozuna drew a leadoff walk and stole second (Kevin Plawecki made a solid throw, but Murphy couldn’t play the one-hopper and get the tag down). Robles fanned Michael Morse, but was unable to stop a weakley hit chopper to his right, and JT Realmuto ended up with an infield hit that put runners on the corners with one way. Alex Torres came in to replace Robles and had a nine-pitch at-bat with the hitting guru Ichiro Suzuki. Ichiro won, and not with a slap-happy single the other way, either. The future Hall-of-Famer pulled one and sent it over the wall in right, putting his team up 7-3 and blowing the game open.
Torres exited for Erik Goeddel, who retired Hechavarria before Collins called on Jack Leathersich to make his Major League debut. Leathersich surrendered a well-hit single to Justin Bour, but Bour was called out when his foot (allegedly) came off the bag at second, and the teams went to the ninth (thanks in large part to the fact that Miami elected not to challenge the questionable call).
Eric Campbell drew a free pass from Bryan Morris to begin the ninth, but for the second straight inning, a leadoff baserunner was erased on a double-play, this time courtesy of Wilmer Flores. Plawecki extended the game with a single, but Kirk Nieuwenhuis whiffed to end the ballgame.
Colon wasn’t terrible tonight. But he wasn’t good. He was struggling from the beginning, and he seemed to be missing his usual command (although he avoided issuing a walk). The Mets handed him a lead—twice— but he couldn’t hold it. And seriously, if you get a chance, go look up that homer Stanton hit. That guy is strong. (Dee Gordon looks pretty amazing too. I was hoping the Mets would get him this winter, but alas…)
The Mets had their fair share of baserunners in this one, but failed to capitalize, especially after the early innings. The offense has cooled off a bit, so hopefully a return to Citi Field will serve the bats well. (It’s a bandbox now, right?)
The Mets weren’t going to go 159-3. Teams are going to have their ups and downs. 10-0 is a pretty good highlight. 2-4 isn’t a bad lowlight. The Mets did themselves a huge favor by giving themselves a nice divisional cushion with their hot start. But after they stumbled in the Subway Series, they failed to pick it back up against the Marlins (and they could have been swept— although they could have swept this series as well). 15-7 is a very good record.
But the Nationals are coming. They’ve scored 13 runs two nights in a row. And they’re coming for us. We have a four-game set against them on deck, and it’s a huge series for both teams. A sweep would put us in an amazing spot and really make the Nats start to sweat, even this early in the season. Getting swept would make it six losses in eight games, and erase much of the cushion we had built up. A split does nothing, although I suppose it works in favor of the Mets because it brings them four games closer to game #162, which is the one after which they still need to have that lead. Both teams will be hoping to take three of four. Fortunately, the series is at Citi Field. The Mets have been, to put it lightly, pretty good at their home ballpark this season.
Up Next: The Mets will begin their series against the Nationals on Thursday at 7:10 PM. Jacob deGrom will face Stephen Strasburg, child of Mets legend Matt Harvey.
By the way, Bartolo was, for once, only the second-most beautiful person to take the mound tonight.
Here’s Miss Florida throwing out the first pitch as all fifteen men in attendance at Marlins Park gaze longingly.
