Miguel Rojas quieted the Citi Field crowd down swiftly on Thursday evening, smashing the first pitch of the game into the left field bleachers to put his team up within seconds of the game starting.
There was only one way for the Mets offense to recover from such a quick deficit; send the first pitch they saw into the stands as well.
That’s exactly what Jonathan Villar did.
Yes, you heard that correctly. The Mets and the Marlins both homered on the first pitch they saw on Thursday night, as New York went on to take the game by a final score of 4-3. It was only the second time in Mets history that both teams had smacked leadoff bombs.
The Marlins offense was quick out the gate, and after capitalizing on Rojas’ homer, continued to batter Mets’ starter Carlos Carrasco with hits. Jazz Chisholm lined a double into the right-center field gap that was bobbled by Brandon Nimmo, allowing the speedy second baseman to advance to third. Jesus Aguilar wasted no time to send him home, lining a base hit through the left side to up his N.L. leading RBI count to 93.
Carrasco settled down after that, retiring three in a row to end the first frame, but the damage was done, and the Mets found themselves facing a 2-0 deficit before they even picked up a bat.
As we mentioned earlier, however, Villar came up ready to rumble. He absolutely demolished the first pitch thrown by Marlins’ starter Sandy Alcantara towards the Shea Bridge, lessening the Mets deficit to just one run.
Three innings later, the Mets captured the lead. Nimmo reached first on a dribbler along the third base line, and advanced to second on a throwing error. He was quickly driven in by Francisco Lindor, who doubled off the left field wall to tie the game. After Lindor advanced to third on a productive out from Pete Alonso, Alcantara made a mistake, and balked while trying to make a pickoff move. Lindor crossed home and the Mets had taken a 3-2 lead.
On the mound, Carrasco had settled in after his rough first. The right-hander retired 12 batters in a row to thrust himself into the fifth inning, where he faced some leadoff adversity when Jorge Alfaro reached on a throwing error by Villar at third.
However, when Javier Baez is on the field, the chances of a run scoring go down exponentially. The Marlins attempted a hit and run, and as Alfaro raced for second, batter Bryan De La Cruz flied out to right fielder Michael Conforto. Normally, Alfaro would have sensed this and ran back to first base. However, Baez faked catching a throw from third, fooling the Marlins’ catcher into thinking De La Cruz had grounded a ball on the infield. With his mind utterly confused, Conforto lightly tossed the ball to Alonso at first for the double play.
Carrasco made it through one out in the sixth before Luis Rojas decided to pull the plug. He brought on the lefty Aaron Loup with runners on first and second and just one out, and Loup immediately had trouble finding the zone, walking the first two batters he faced to tie the game at three. However, he found his command with his third batter, and retired his last two men to keep the game tied.
After a quick inning from Jeurys Familia in the top half of the seventh, the Mets got an opportunity to take the lead once again. Jeff McNeil lined a single into center, and Pat Mazeika continued his fantastic day at the plate with a base hit into right, advancing McNeil to third on a bobble in the outfield. Finally, Dominic Smith came to the plate as the pinch hitter, and grounded a screamer down the right field line that scored McNeil from third.
That would be it for Alcantara, who was replaced by Richard Bleier with runners on the corners. His first task was to face Villar, who slowly grounded a ball to Joe Panik at third. Panik opted to throw home and nabbed Mazeika trying to score for the second out. Nimmo then came to the plate with two gone and struck out swinging on four pitches.
In the eighth, Trevor May came in, and pitched a scoreless frame. The bottom half of the inning saw the Marlins make two errors, one on a throw and one on a dropped fly ball. Still, they escaped the inning unscathed. The two misplays marked the sixth and seventh errors of the game; four for the Marlins and three for the Mets.
The trumpets sounded at Citi Field as closer Edwin Diaz made his way in from the bullpen, looking to protect the Mets’ one-run lead; and protect he did. The right-hander set the Marlins down in order, striking out two, paving the way to the Mets sweep.
New York will head to Washington D.C. next to begin a five-game series against the fourth place Nationals tomorrow night, as Rich Hill takes on Sean Nolin at 7:05 p.m. EST.
