Mets Beat Marlins in 12

One good thing about two inept offenses like the Mets and Marlins facing each other is that we are liable to see a good old fashioned pitching duel. We got just that on Sunday as Dillon Gee and Tom Koehler faced off. They were both long gone when the game went into extra innings and the Mets won in 12 on a Travis d’Arnaud hit.

Gee threw 102 pitches through seven shutout innings, and surprisingly (considering how he usually operates), Terry Collins allowed Gee to stay in the game for the eighth. He walked Chris Coghlan to lead off the inning. He was sacrificed to second. Collins then removed Gee from the game after a season-high 109 pitches. Pedro Feliciano got the second out and then intentionally walked Giancarlo Stanton. Scott Atchison came on to get the final out.

So Dillon Gee went 7.1 innings, allowing no runs on six hits, with two walks and eight strikeouts. He took a no-decision.

Tom Koehler was even better for the Marlins, throwing eight shutout innings. The Mets managed just three hits off of him. He struck out five and did not walk a batter.

LaTroy Hawkins took the mound for the ninth, an inning marked by some wild play by Daniel Murphy at second base. Leadoff batter Logan Morrison hit a slow roller to Murphy. The only chance he had was to flip the ball to first with his glove. It flew high over Lucas Duda’s head and into the dugout, so Morrison was on second with no outs. Ed Lucas then hit a hot shot to Murphy. For some reason he threw to third, and he was somehow able to gun down the lead runner. It worked, but it was still a bad play. The next batter hit a grounder to Wilmer Flores at third. He threw to second and Murphy dropped the ball. The throw was not great, but he should have caught it. Murphy was charged with his second error of the inning. Greg Dobbs fouled out to Flores for the second out. Fittingly, the third out was a routine grounder to Murphy.

Incidentally, the only time I can remember a second baseman throwing a ball to third like that was Jose Reyes, when he briefly played second during the failed Kaz Matsui experiment.

The scoreless game went to extra innings. Travid d’Arnaud led off the 11th with a single up the middle and was sacrificed to second. Josh Satin grounded out for the second out. D’Arnaud moved to third. Eric Young struck out to end the inning.

Juan Lagares led off the 12th with a walk. Murphy followed with a single to put runners on first and third with no outs. Lucas Duda walked to load the bases. Zach Lutz hit a grounder to third. They got the force at home for the first out, and Lutz just beat the throw to first to keep the bases loaded with one out. Andrew Brown hit a broken-bat grounder to first. Another force at home was the second out. But D’Arnaud then came through with a single up the middle to give the Mets the win.

Mets win 1-0 and take three out of four from Miami. The Mets scored just eight runs in the series; the Marlins plated seven.