MIAMI: mission not fulfilled.
The Mets not only had to fatten up in Washington last weekend (they didn’t), but the plan called for a defeat in South Beach by another NL East felput before returning home for the Subway Series.
Instead, the Marlins launched themselves against this lifeless group, using the Jazz Chisholm Jr. score. against Jeurys Familia in the eighth inning to beat the Mets, 3-2, at loanDepot park.
The Mets lost two of the three games in the series and finished 4-4 on a road trip that had expected them to tramp to the NL East vanguard. They are now five games behind the Braves.
“There are teams that don’t fight for the playoffs and are focused,” Javier Baez said. “They have the feeling we need: not trying so hard, watching the ball and stopping everything, and that’s how we should be.”
The Family entered the eighth inning and recorded two outings before Chisholm threw a 98 mph spike into the top right deck to give the Marlins their margin of victory. The Mets led 2-0 in the sixth, but were unable to add, finishing 0-7 with runners in scoring position.
Pete Alonso tripled at the head of the eighth inning, but that was wasted as the Mets failed to get into the race. Both Baez and JD Davis came out on the left side, and after Michael Conforto received a deliberate walk, Richard Bleier retired Jeff McNeil.
“It’s been a couple of times this season, but lately we’ve been better,” said coach Luis Rojas, who referred to the failure to get the third runner out. “We hope the boys get better as we move forward in this game.”
The Marlins tied 2-2 in the seventh in their third inning of the inning. Lewis Brinson hit a dribble towards the third that Brad Hand threw and jumped ahead of Alonso, allowing Isan Diaz to score from the second. Conforto recovered the ball and sent off Brinson in the second to end the inning.
Hand, after replacing Marcus Stroman, allowed a single on the field to Diaz, but the Mets got a break: Hand unloaded a throw back, but the ball accompanied James McCann, who nailed pinch runner Alex Jackson trying to get to third place.
Stroman lasted 6 1/3 innings and conceded a run in four strokes with seven strokes. The right-hander left after being fooled by Sandy Leon’s eskib that became a single on the field in the seventh.
“We know we’re in every game,” Stroman said. “What makes it even more frustrating is that in the end we’re there a little bit and a couple of things don’t go our way and then it feels like you’re at a loss.”
The Marlins came close to sixth in the election of Chisholm’s RBI camper, which reduced the Mets ’2-1 lead. Stroman sank Eddy Alvarez to start the inning and made a single to Miguel Rojas who put runners in the corners. Chisholm reached third base after his tie, but Stroman destroyed Jesus Sanchez to end the threat.
A two-point concentration against Marlins left-hander Jesus Luzarado gave the Mets a 1-0 lead in the first. Baez cleared the fence in the center right (on a rebound, for double) before Luzarado walked Davis and Conforto in succession. On the latter, Luzarado threw his second wild throw from the entrance, allowing Baez to score.
Baez scored at home in the second inning, extending the Mets ’lead to 2-0. The blast was Baez’s seventh in 28 games since the Mets. It was his fifth homer since he returned from the injured list on August 22nd.
“We had a guy who moved our offense basically tonight, and it was Javy, with his base career skills and the scorer who got it right,” Rojas said.