The New York Mets lost to the Miami Marlins, 3-2, this afternoon in their Grapefruit League matchup at First Data Field in Port St. Lucie, FL.

Pitching

Jason Vargas made his first appearance of the spring in his return to the Mets. He ran into a bit of trouble but, overall, the proficient location of his off-speed pitches got him out of trouble. After a Braxton Lee leadoff base-hit, Vargas was able to get J.P. Realmuto to fly-out and then coaxed a soft groundball out of Starlin Castro.

With two outs and Lee on second after a stolen base, Vargas got Justin Bour to swing awkwardly at an offering and he grounded out to Asdrubal Cabera lined up in the shift, to end the inning. This is precisely why Sandy Alderson brought the 35-year-old in on a two-year deal.

Vargas faced some more adversity in the second inning but was, again, able to regain his command and work through it. After giving up a long home run to Garrett Cooper to lead off the inning, he was able to recover and get the next three batters, kind of…

After getting Tomas Telis to groundout, veteran outfielder Cameron Maybin was able to fight off an inside-pitch and bloop a single into right-field. Jay Bruce made an efficient move in toward the ball and was able to throw out Maybin while trying to stretch his single into a double. The following batter, Brian Anderson, went down on a nasty changeup, but only after Vargas was blatantly squeezed by the home-plate umpire on the previous pitch.

Jeurys Familia came in to pitch the third inning and mowed down the three Marlins’ batters he faced, looking quite strong. After Familia came Jerry Blevins. He put down Castro and Bour to start the fourth inning, walked Cooper, then got Telis to ground out to Jose Reyes at shortstop to close out the fourth.

AJ Ramos entered the game in the fifth and threw his first pitch high and tight to Cameron Maybin after Cespedes was brushed back by a pitch earlier in the game. Make what you will of that. Ramos’ curve looked crisp and his location seemed to be on point working the fifth until Anderson drove a double into the gap.

He was able to regroup and retire Miguel Rojas on a liner to center but Braxton Lee followed up with an RBI double to left-center to give the Marlins a 2-1 lead. Ramos walked his old battery-mate Realmuto to put runners on first and second, but then got Starlin Castro to fly out to end the inning.

Seth Lugo came out for the Mets in the sixth, giving up an apparent base hit to Bour to leadoff the inning but Kevin Kaczmarski made a nice running play in right field, coming in, to make the catch. Lugo then got Cooper to ground out to second, and mixed up a steady diet of fastballs and sweeping curveballs to induce a Telis groundout to end the inning.

Back on the mound for the seventh, Lugo struck out Monte Harrison to start things off. He got Cristhian Adames to hit a softly-hit grounder to Flores at second and then got Peter Mooney to ground a ball right back to him to finish out his second perfect inning.

Lugo began the eighth with an impressive strikeout of J.B. Shuck. He then got Rodriguez swinging on a hard breaking ball. Lugo allowed his first baserunner of the afternoon when Isan Diaz crushed an opposite-field shot that bounced off of the top of the wall in left field. Our old friend Eric Campbell then hit a liner down the right-field line for an RBI triple, giving the Marlins a 3-2 lead. Scott Van Slyke then lined out to deep center field to close out his afternoon.

Offense

Sandy Alcantara started and pitched through the third for Miami. The 22-year-old Dominican product looked good after a rough first inning. The Mets led off the bottom-half of the first with an Asdrubal Cabrera base-hit. He was able to work the count to 2-2 after falling behind early and put a clean swing on the ball.

Yoenis Cespedes struck out (in his first two at-bats on eerily similar sliders, actually) on a nasty sequence of pitches from Alcantara, then Jay Bruce smacked a hard double down the right-field line to move Cabrera to third. That brought up Todd Frazier who hit an RBI groundout to shortstop to give the Mets a 1-0 lead.

Phillip Evans hit a home run to deep right-center, just past the outreached glove of Marlins’ center fielder J.B. Shuck, in the seventh inning to tie the game at 2-2.

Adrian Gonzalez, starting at first today, almost put a liner through the shift on the right side, but the ball tipped off of Bour’s glove and right toward the Marlins’ second-baseman to end the inning. Otherwise, Gonzo’s bat looked awfully slow today.

Wilmer Flores, leading off the sixth inning, squirted a ball toward the bag at second, it was bobbled by the shortstop, and Wilmer got himself an infield hit out of it. Nice hustle, Wilmer.

Kevin Plawecki continued to rake, crushing a base-hit to right in the second and clubbing a double to the right-center gap in the fifth.

On Deck

The Mets play two games on Friday with Rafael Montero starting against the Washington Nationals at First Data Field with a 1:10 p.m. start time. The Mets will also play the Astros on the road with Robert Gsellman getting that start in a 6:05 p.m. game.