The Mets defeated the Marlins by the score of 5-1 on Tuesday night in Miami. Here are my takeaways from the win…
The victorious fight against bad luck.
The Mets had Marlins LHP Brad Hand on the ropes in this game throughout his four inning stint at the beginning of this game, but they were unable to break through against him at any point during the night.
He needed 31 pitches to get out of the first inning, but the Mets just seemed to hit the ball right at people all night long even after Hand departed. Martin Prado and Christian Yelich in particular were vacuum cleaners out there for Miami, helping to extinguish any attempt by the Mets to score runs.
The Mets also had to deal with some bad luck in the third inning after Niese walked Hecchavarria, and then Dee Gordon executed a hit and run to perfection, hitting it to the vacated hole at second base when Wilmer Flores went to cover second on the steal.
But like good teams always seem to do, they hung in thanks to some great pitching from Jon Niese, and found a way to break through late to win the ballgame with four runs in the eighth inning thanks to a big run scoring single by Eric Campbell, a two-run triple by Juan Lagares, and an RBI double from Curtis Granderson.
And, the Mets are now a good team.
Good character.
Previously, a game liked this always seemed destined to go in the loss column.
But this is a different team with a different energy and baseline character. They had everything go wrong for them tonight, yet they stayed in the game and found a way to win despite some real choppy waters.
They’ve been doing that a lot this year, as they’ve shown this fight and perseverance even without these reinforcements the front office acquired in recent weeks.
The impressive run for Jon Niese continued.
What more can we say about Niese? He has been absolutely splendid over the last two months.
He did a fantastic job commanding the lower part of the strike zone with his two-seamer, and was a groundball machine in Miami on Tuesday. He also had an outstanding change-up with some real nice movement down to get some swings and misses.
Again, he fell victim to some bad luck in the third, but the Marlins really mounted a minimal threat against the veteran left-hander as he earned his sixth win of the year and his first since June 12.
He has been exactly what the Mets have needed to be on the back-end of their star-studded rotation this year, and more. Outside of a handful of starts, he’s really had an excellent season, and deserves a lot better than the 6-8 record he has. He had to deal with a lot of baserunners early in the season thanks in large measure to poor defense behind him. But now that the defense is fixed, he has enjoyed a lot of success and been a valuable part of this roster.
Not bad for a guy who seemed destined to be traded earlier this year.
Poor umpiring.
I am not one to typically complain about the officiating, but Angel Hernandez did a poor job calling balls and strikes on Tuesday night. Unfortunately, its not an uncommon occurrence for him.
It went both ways, but it hurt Niese in particular when he had Adeiny Hecchavarria on a strike three call, but instead it was ball four. He would come around to score on a Cole Gillespie RBI single.
It’s just frustrating. Games should not come down to the officiating. It’s hard for any team to combat it, the Marlins included.
Fortunately, the Mets won, so it just ends as a gripe.
Other notes from Tuesday:
Niese has a 2.78 ERA in 71 1/3 innings over his last 11 starts.
Juan Uribe has hit in all five games he’s played in since joining the Mets.
With his eighth inning RBI double, Granderson has reached base for the 19th straight game, and extended his hitting streak to six games. He’s 9-for-26 during his six-game hitting streak.
For the first time since May 10, the Mets have won two consecutive games in the same road series.
The Mets improved to 40-6 when scoring four or more runs in a game, and came from behind to win for the 25th time in 2015.
Just Mets 