It started as an ugly blowout, it turned into a thrilling comeback, and it ended as a heartbreaking 11-8 loss. Whatever you call it, the Mets’ Saturday afternoon scramble with the Miami Marlins fit perfectly in a series thus far defined by offensive firepower and sloppy defense.
Doing their best imitation of the Mets last night, the Marlins scored five runs off David Peterson in the first. The last time the Mets scored and surrendered five runs in the first inning on consecutive days was somehow exactly
38 years ago, on August 29 and August 30 against the 1987 Giants. Much like in Thursday’s series opener, the Fish were aided by shoddy Met defense, with a potential double play ball bouncing off David Peterson’s glove and a potential fly out sailing over the head of a Brandon Nimmo in left field.
Francisco Lindor quickly got a run back with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the inning, but the momentum of a first-inning rally seemed to dissipate when Juan Soto was thrown out ill-advisedly trying to advance to third base. The Mets crept closer in the bottom of the second, with Brett Baty scoring on an errant throw from catcher Agustín Ramírez, but Peterson couldn’t stop the bleeding, getting charged with three more runs in the top of the third. It was an uncharacteristic meltdown for Peterson, who retired just six of seventeen batters he faced and set a new career-high with eight runs allowed amid his most consistent season.
Peterson left the mound with the bases loaded and nobody out, but reliever Chris Devenski — the evening’s most-valuable pitcher — was up to the task, inducing a double play and inning-ending ground ball to limit the damage. Making his first appearance since July 29, Devenski turned in three hitless innings, striking out three and walking one. His effort, followed by a scoreless inning from Brooks Raley, paved the way for the Mets’ sizzling offense to mount a comeback.
In the bottom of the third inning, Soto made up for his prior base running misfire after a leadoff walk, stealing his 24th base of the season and ambitiously advancing to third on a pop fly double by Brandon Nimmo. One pitch later, the red-hot Mark Vientos slashed a three-run home run to right field, bringing the score to 8-5. Vientos has now hit eight home runs in his past 13 games, making him just the second Met to accomplish that feat in a single season before his 26th birthday (Lee Mazzilli was the first in July 1980).
Soto stole the spotlight in the middle innings, hitting a towering solo homer in the fourth and drilling a two-run, game-tying homer in the sixth to send a shockwave through the Citi Field crowd. The second home run was Soto’s 35th of the season, making him the ninth Met to reach that mark and the first player in baseball history to do so with three different teams in three consecutive seasons. He ended the day having tallied a pair of walks, a pair of homers, and a pair of stolen bases, giving him a breathtaking total of 111 walks, 35 homers, and 25 stolen bases before the end of August.
Just when the Mets seemed poised to seize a phenomenal victory, the pesky Marlins poked ahead once again, manufacturing a run off Tyler Rogers in the top of the seventh. Jeff McNeil delivered a lead-off triple in the bottom of the inning, putting the tying run 90 feet away, but Brett Baty and Starling Marte failed to bring him home before Cedric Mullins lined out to strand Squirrel. Entering in a non-save situation, Edwin Díaz couldn’t keep the Fish at bay, allowing two runs in an appearance for the first time since April 11. The Mets brought the tying run to bat in the bottom of the ninth after a walk by McNeil and single by Hayden Senger, but Mullins struck out chasing on a breaking ball to seal the defeat.
After their most reliable pitcher failed to make it through three innings, it’s impressive that the Mets managed to make the game feel as gut-wrenching as it did. There are positives aplenty to take from Saturday afternoon: the bulk of the bullpen was airtight, the lineup showed no signs of slowing their recent surge, and the team fought hard until the final out despite falling behind early. Still, a melancholy sentiment might creep into fans’ minds as September approaches with the team still lacking a win while trailing after eight innings: though this wasn’t necessarily a game the Mets should have won, it certainly felt like a game the 2024 Mets would have won.
SB Nation GameThreads
Box scores
Win Probability Added
Big Mets winner: Juan Soto, +50.5% WPA
Big Mets loser: David Peterson, -50.4% WPA
Mets pitchers: -61.3% WPA
Mets hitters: +11.3% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Juan Soto’s game-tying two-run homer in the sixth, +29.3% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Joey Wiemer’s two-run double in the first, -11.2% WPA
