Just Mets

The Mets came from behind for the eighth time already this season on Monday, defeating the Marlins 3-1 in Miami. Here are my takeaways from tonight’s game…

A hell of a win.

The Mets arrived in Miami when we were all waking up this morning, and their offense looked quite sleepy as a result. They had no clue against Jared Cosart for the first eight innings, but as they have in the past, they had quite a clue against Steve Cishek.

The ninth inning started when Marcel Ozuna misjudged a flyball off the bat of Juan Lagares, and gave them a gift double to leadoff the frame. Then, Lucas Duda walked, and after Michael Cuddyer popped up, Daniel Murphy turned on a fastball from Steve Cishek and hit it 400 feet for his biggest hit of the season.

The Mets were simply lacking energy the entire evening, and understandably so given their itinerary early this morning. But they had also been very sluggish and not exactly incident-free over the last three days. Yet, they found a way, and earned themselves a big, inspiring, character-driven win.

Daniel Murphy had the big night he needed.

It’s just been awful for Murphy in the early part of the season. He hasn’t hit, he’s been bad at second base, making both physical and mental mistakes at a very high rate. But he’s moved closer to the plate, and he came up huge in the ninth with just a huge hit.

Then in the bottom of the ninth, he looked like a natural at second base, ranging to his left, spinning around and throwing out Michael Morse. A fitting end to a wonderful and much needed night for Murphy.

Quick, efficient, and good pitching.

Both starting pitchers were really stingy tonight. They threw strikes, worked quickly and didn’t allow hardly any baserunners throughout their outings.

Dillon Gee was particularly impressive. He needed only 59 pitches through seven innings, inducing 14 groundball outs in the process. It was clear the Marlins game plan was to try and jump on Gee early in counts, but it was to no avail as he just didn’t throw anything in the middle of the zone. He had a ton of movement on his fastball and change-up, and was just placing the ball where he wanted to from start to finish.

His road came to an end in disappointing fashion when he allowed three consecutive two out hits in the eighth. That was the difference tonight, but he was outstanding and has nothing to hang his head over. Fortunately, the Mets offense bailed him out at the absolute last minute.

A huge game.

The Marlins were hot, the Mets were staggering a bit after a rough weekend in the Bronx. But they got the job done, albeit a little late on Monday night (or early, depending on your perspective), and won yet another game against a division rival. That makes this win – perhaps their most inspiring win of the year – that much sweeter…

Other notes from Monday:

The Mets came from behind and won for the eighth time on Monday night.

Murphy has five RBI in his last two games – he’s 3-for-7 with two doubles and a home run in those two games.

The Mets did not get a runner in scoring position until the ninth inning, and they only went 1-for-4 with runners in scoring position all night – the one hit was Murphy’s home run.

Juan Lagares had two more hits on Monday – he’s now 8-for-his-last-12 at the plate.