Mets Can’t Complete Sweep of Marlins
The Mets were unable to complete the four-game sweep of the Marlins Thursday night, going down in defeat, despite a couple of late-inning rallies. But hey, three out of four ain’t bad.
The Mets loaded the bases with two outs in the second, courtesy of Michael Conforto, doubling in his first game back from the minors, and two walks. Jacob deGrom then hit a sinking liner to center on which Christian Yelich made a great diving catch to keep the Mets off the board.
deGrom issued two walks in the third and when Yelich singled, the Marlins had a 1-0 lead.
A single and two doubles in the fifth extended the Marlins lead to 3-0.
It was a disappointing five innings for deGrom, pitching on extra rest. He allowed three runs on six hits, with six strikeouts and four walks. His ERA is now over three (3.04) for the first time since May 21.
Jay Bruce led off the sixth with a home run to make it a 3-1 game. It was his third homer as a Met.
Yelich hit a three-run home run in the seventh off of Josh Smoker to put the game out of reach, 6-1. Fernando Salas, acquired Wednesday night from the Angels, made his Mets debut in relief of Smoker. He pitched a scoreless inning.
The Mets tried to make it interesting in the eighth. Curtis Granderson led off with a double. He went to third on a Kelly Johnson single. Bruce came through again with a single to score Granderson and make it 6-2. Wilmer Flores walked to load the bases with no outs. But Conforto tapped back to the pitcher into a double play. With runners on second and third and two outs, pinch hitter Yoenis Cespedes struck out to end the inning.
They also made a run for it in the ninth. Travis d’Arnaud led off with an infield single (he was originally called out, but it was overturned upon review). Asdrubal Cabrera was called on to pinch hit, and he hit a two-run homer to cut the Marlins lead to 6-4. Cabrera now has 18 homers, including five in his last seven games. But that was as close as they could get.
Mets lose 6-4. They are now two games back of the Cardinals, who were off Thursday, for the second Wild Card. They are half a game ahead of the Pirates and a game up on the Marlins.