They say, “what goes up must come down.”
For Javier “El Mago” Baez, what went up was a baseball, and what came down was the very same baseball, just displaced by roughly 438 feet.
The infielder’s 29th home run of the season came in the third inning of the Mets one-run loss to the Marlins, who took the rubber game, 3-2, and delivered the Mets a sharp blow to their postseason hopes. With the loss, New York has lost 12 of their last 13 one-run games; the unfortunate streak has sent the team below .500 once again.
The Mets faced off against 23-year-old left-hander Jesus Luzardo of the Marlins, who was acquired from the Athletics at the deadline. Luzardo has a high ceiling but struggles with his command, which became prevalent in the first inning on Thursday.
After retiring two straight to start the game in dominant fashion, Baez smacked an opposite field double for the first hit of the night. Luzardo seemed shaken after this, walking J.D. Davis to put two runners on with two out.
Michael Conforto came up next, and was patient at the plate, as the shaken Luzardo continued to miss his spots. A curveball in the dirt scampered away from catcher Sandy Leon, and Baez sped his way to third base, working around the tag to safely get a hand in. With runners at the corners now, Luzardo dealt another curveball to the backstop, allowing Baez to score from third base.
With the run, the Mets had officially scored in the first inning in six of their last seven games.
Marcus Stroman took to the mound for the Mets and began his night with a 1-2-3 frame. He allowed a couple base hits in the second but worked around them to keep the Marlins at bay.
Baez came up again in the third, and took the 1-1 pitch deep into the center field sky, strutting out of the batter’s box as the ball came to a landing 438 feet away. With his 29th homer of the season, the Mets had a 2-0 lead.
Both pitchers really settled in after the home run, as Luzardo went on to retire eight straight, and Stroman matched that with 10 in a row of his own.
In the top of the sixth, Baez came up once again, and drew just his 19th walk of the season with nobody out. The speedy infielder then took off for second base with Davis at the dish and dodged another tag to swipe the bag safely. After Davis popped up for the first out, Baez jumped the gun again, snagging third base for his second stolen base of the inning.
Despite this, the Mets couldn’t get him home, and a Dominic Smith strikeout stranded Baez 90 feet from home.
The Marlins got themselves on the board in the sixth, tallying their first run of the game on a fielder’s choice with runners on the corners. Stroman worked around this, however, and retired the last two batters of the inning to escape with the lead.
Stroman stayed in the game to start the seventh and face Lewin Diaz, who struck out for the first out of the inning. After Stroman surrendered a hit to Leon, Rojas surprisingly opted to switch him out after 94 pitches. The Mets manager brought Brad Hand came into the game, who immediately gave up a base hit to Isan Diaz.
With runners on first and second, Hand struggled to command his fastball. After missing wildly multiple times, a fastball got away from McCann, and rebounded off the backstop. Alex Jackson was caught in the middle of the base path as McCann fired the fortuitous rebound to third, where Davis made the tag for the second out.
So, after a base hit and a lucky bounce for the second out, Lewis Brinson came to the plate, and dribbled a slow roller towards Hand on the mound. The right-hander picked the ball up and fired to first base, but threw wildly, allowing the tying run to score. Brinson tried to advance to second on the wild throw but came off the bag on the slide and was tagged out to end the inning.
Still, the tying run had scored, and the Marlins had evened it up as Stroman furiously watched from the dugout.
Pete Alonso was determined to get the Mets back in front in the eighth, leading off the inning with an opposite field triple to bring the go-ahead run 90 feet from home. Regardless, nothing is ever easy for this team, and back-to-back sharp groundouts to the left side prevented Pete from making any headway. With two outs and runners on the corners, Jeff McNeil pinch hit, and grounded out to shortstop, stranding the runner on third.
Jeurys Familia came in to pitch the bottom half of the eighth and was so close to getting through the inning unscathed; Jazz Chisholm had other ideas. He smacked a two-out home run into the right field seats to put the Marlins up by one.
The Mets looked utterly lost at the plate in the top of the ninth and went down in order, dropping the game and the series to the fourth place Marlins. They will travel to back home to New York next, where they will take on the struggling Yankees at Citi Field, hoping to right the course with 21 games to play.
Player of the Game: Javier Baez
Javier Baez came to play on Thursday night. He smacked a double to the opposite field in the first inning and came around to score after some impressive baserunning. El Mago came up in the third and turned on a 1-1 pitch, sending it flying into the center field seats for his 29th bomb of the season.
In the sixth, Baez worked just his 19th walk of the season, and capitalized on the opportunity by swiping second base. The throw to the bag beat him, but he worked his way around the tag once again to arrive to the bag safely. The infielder then stole third base later on in the frame, but was stranded on base.
