Marlins Snap Mets 5-Game Winning Streak

The Mets paid their first visit to Marlins Park on Friday and they treated it just like it was Citizens Bank Park — they fell behind and staged one of their now-patented comebacks. But unlike the Phillies, the Marlins showed some fight and put together a comeback of their own to win the game.

Old pal Jose Reyes led off the bottom of the first against Johan Santana with a long drive to center. Andres Torres caught up with it and seemed to have it lined up but it somehow sailed past his glove for a triple. Reyes came home on a single, and then Austin Kearns slammed a two-run homer to give the Marlins the early 3-0 lead.

Santana settled down after that and regained his dominant form, not allowing any more runs and striking out seven Marlins in six innings.

The Mets couldn’t manage much against Mark Buehrle. Ike Davis finally cracked through in the fifth with a rocket over the oddly-colored green wall in right for his second home run in two games, cutting the lead to 3-1.

In the seventh two reserves filling in for injured players combined to score a run — Ronny Cedeno singled and Mike Nickeas drove him home with a double to make it 3-2. Terry Collins decided to go for it and lift Santana for a pinch-hitter despite him throwing just 82 pitches. Justin Turner responded by flying out. After Buehrle walked Torres, Buehrle was taken out of the game and Randy Choate struck out Daniel Murphy to end the threat.

But David Wright led off the eighth against Edward Mujica with a double. Wright had three hits on the night and is now batting .387. He moved to third on a ground out, and then pinch-hitter Kirk Nieuwenhuis came through yet again, doubling to right to tie the score at three. Davis was intentionally walked and Cedeno walked unintentionally to load the bases. Ryan Webb came on and pinch-hitter Mike Baxter greeted him with a two-run double to give the Mets their first lead of the night, 5-3. As a pinch-hitter Baxter is batting .400 with six hits and five RBIs.

The Marlins cut the lead to 5-4 when Reyes, who reached on an error by Davis, scored on a double by Omar Infante.

But Frank Francisco blew it in the ninth. Giancarlo Stanton led off with a double and moved to third on a fly out. Emilio Bonifacio singled to tie the score at five. Bonifacio stole second and with two outs Greg Dobbs singled to give the Marlins the 6-5 win.

So the Mets five-game winning streak is snapped in disappointing fashion.