Juan Lagares 4 Hits, Mets Win Slugfest in Miami

Being the MVP of the Mets is like being named fourth runner-up in the Miss America Pageant, but if you had to hand out Mets hardware, it might go to Juan Lagares. In addition to his usual fine fielding Tuesday night, Lagares had four hits for the first time in his career as the Mets outslugged the Marlins.

The Mets jumped all over Brad Penny. Juan Lagares led off the game with a single and advanced to second on a ground out. David Wright singled to score Lagares. With two outs Travis d’Arnaud singled and then Matt den Dekker also singled to plate Wright to make it 2-0.

The Mets went right back to work in the second. Wilmer Flores led off with a single and move to second on a sacrifice by Jonathon Niese. Juan Lagares doubled to make it 3-0. He moved to third on an out and scored on a wild pitch (which should have been a passed ball) to extend the Mets lead to 4-0. Wright followed with a double — his first extra base hit since August 7.

Christian Yelich doubled with two outs in the third. Donovan Solano then hit a grounder to third. Wright made a great diving stop of it, but then he threw the ball away. He probably would have been safe even if the throw was on line, but Yelich scored and Solano went to second on the throwing error. Giancarlo Stanton then hit a monster shot off of that stupid home run sculpture in center field to cut the Mets lead to 4-3.

The Mets got the runs right back in the top of the fourth, and then some. With Brad Penny done for the night, Flores led off against reliever Anthony DeSclafani with an infield single. He was sacrificed to second and Lagares singled to score him to make it 5-3. Lagares stole second and with two outs Wright hit another double into the corner in right to score Lagares to make it 6-3. Wright moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a Lucas Duda single to give the Mets a 7-3 lead.

But Niese continued to struggle in the fourth, allowing two runs to cut the Mets lead to 7-5.

Niese and Juan Lagares both singled to lead off the sixth. Curtis Granderson flied out and both runners advanced. Wright hit a sacrifice fly to make it 8-5. Wright hit the ball with authority tonight, going three-for-four with three RBIs.

Niese allowed another run in the sixth and then he was done for the night. So he went six innings, allowing six runs on 10 hits. He struck out four and walked no one.

The Mets pounded out 16 hits as they win, 8-6.