The Mets won against the Marlins despite Sean Manaea’s pitching implosion in the sixth inning. The offense attacked early against Sandy Alcantara, and Manaea pitched well for the first five innings. The bullpen held up their end for the most part, and the result was a final score of Mets 7, Marlins 5.
Francisco Lindor led off the first inning by hammering a home run over center field on the first pitch he saw from Alcantara. Juan Soto and Bo Bichette walked after that, and Soto scored when Jared Young
tapped a single into center field. By the time A.J. Ewing grounded out for the third out, the Mets led 2-0. Manaea worked a 1-2-3, 4-pitch first inning thanks in part to the work of Ewing and Carson Benge in the outfield.
At the top of the second inning, Francisco Alvarez lined a single into left field. He moved to second when Lindor was hit by a pitch on the elbow. Soto then whacked a 3-run dinger into center field to increase the Mets’ lead. Benge walked, and when he tried to steal second base, he was initially deemed caught and called out. However, the Mets challenged the call, which was overturned, and Benge was safe at second base. Unfortunately, he was stranded there to end the top of the inning. It took a few more pitches this time, but Manaea retired the batters in order in the bottom of the second inning, and the score stood at Mets 5, Marlins 0.
With two outs in the top of the third inning, Brett Baty walloped his own home run into center field. At the bottom of the inning, Lindor laid out to take a hit away from Jakob Marsee and get the first out. Thanks in part to this play, Manaea again retired the batters in order. Other than a double from Soto in the fourth inning, both Mets and Marlins hitters stayed quiet. At the top of the fifth inning, Jared Young walked, and with one out, Ewing lined a double into right field. At this point, Tyler Zuber replaced Alcantara on the mound. After that, Baty drove in Young on a sac fly. As Manaea continued to stifle the Marlins’ offense in the bottom of the fifth, the score was now Mets 7, Marlins 0.
Dax Fulton replaced Tyler Zuber in the sixth inning. After the Mets batters went down in order in the top of the sixth inning, Manaea struggled in the bottom of the inning. Marsee led off with a single into left field and advanced to second base on an error by Baty, who bobbled the ball when trying to pick it up. Jared Serna then smacked an RBI double into center field to score Marsee. Brian Navarreto lined an RBI double into left field past Baty to score Serna, and Heriberto Hernández singled to advance Navarreto to third. Otto Lopez hit an RBI single that brought Navarreto in and sent Manaea out. Jonathan Pintaro replaced Manaea after only 61 pitches., There were no outs recorded yet in the sixth inning. Pintaro got Agustín Ramírez to ground into a double play for the first two outs. Unfortunately, Javier Sanoja also socked an RBI single into center field, and Otto Lopez scored. A.J. Ewing tried to throw the ball home, but his throw was high and offline, and Sanoja advanced to third base. Griffin Conine popped out to Alvarez in foul territory to end the inning, but the score now stood Mets 7, Marlins 4.
Benge walked to lead off the top of the seventh, but the Mets offense could not get anything else going, and he was stranded. Nate Lavender replaced Pintaro in the bottom of the seventh inning. He allowed a single to Marsee and a double to Serna, but stranded them both to maintain both the Mets’ lead and his impressive ERA. The Mets batters went down in order in the top of the eighth inning, and Dedniel Núñez replaced Lavender in the bottom of the inning. He retired the batters in order to move into the ninth inning.
Jack Ralston replaced Fulton on the mound, but had pitch-com issues before being able to start. With one out, Bichette lined a single into right field, and Nick Morabito came in to pinch-run for him. Morabito advanced to second base on a wild pitch by Ralston, but Benge struck out, and Young grounded out to strand him there. Kodai Senga replaced Núñez in the bottom of the ninth. With one out, a kerfuffle during Joe Mack’s at-bat did not prevent him from belting a ground-rule double into right-center field. Jakob Marsee bashed an RBI-double into left field that allowed Mack to score. However, Senga struck out the next two batters using only the ghost fork, and the game ended with a Mets win, Mets 7, Marlins 5.
The Mets will look to sweep the series tomorrow at 6:40 PM. Robert Stock will pitch for the Mets, and Janson Junk will pitch for the Marlins.
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What’s WPA?
Big Mets winner: Juan Soto, +19% WPA
Big Mets loser: Marcus Semien, -6% WPA
Mets pitchers: +20% WPA
Mets hitters: +30% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Juan Soto’s 3-run home run, +15.8%
Teh sux0rest play: Jared Serna’s 7th inning double, -10.4% WPA
