NEW YORK--Coming home, the Mets needed to put together a good home stand, in order to stay afloat with their road woes.
It didn't get off to a good start, as the Mets trailed the Marlins 3-0 early in this game, but R.A. Dickey settled down nicely to keep the Mets in it.
After retiring the first five batters of the game to face him, Dickey allowed a run in the second on a triple and RBI single by Cameron Maybin.
In the third, the Marlins loaded the bases without an out for Hanley Ramirez, who brought in a run with a fielder's choice and another run scored on an error by first baseman Ike Davis, extending the lead to 3-0. The next batter Jorge Cantu singled to center where Angel Pagan threw out Ramirez at the plate.
The Mets have had a knack all season long of fighting back in games, especially at home. They got the two runs back in their third with an unexpected rally out of the bottom of the order.
20-year-old second baseman Ruben Tejada, just called up to replace Luis Castillo who went on the DL with sore feet, doubled to leadoff the inning. Pitcher R.A. Dickey singled off the first base bag, scoring Tejada, making it 3-1. Angel Pagan hit a double play after a Reyes hit, but Jason Bay then doubled in Dickey, cutting the lead to 3-2.
For the second straight start, Dickey was shaky to begin the game, but settled in to keep the Mets within a run. In the fifth, with second and third and two outs, Dickey got Cantu to groundout to shortstop to end the inning. A 1-2-3 sixth from Dickey set up the Mets comeback.
In the sixth, after an Ike Davis popout, Wright walked and Rod Barajas doubled him to third. Jeff Francoeur, staying red-hot, singled the tying run home and Ruben Tejada gave the Mets a 4-3 lead with a fielder's choice grounder to shortstop. Dickey would then get his second hit of the game, Reyes followed with a walk, but Pagan grounded out to end the frame.
The Mets still had some work to do, as they needed another three innings of shut down pitching out of the bullpen. Dickey pitched 6 1/3 innings, allowing three runs on seven hits, he walked two and struck out four.
After Pedro Feliciano allowed a single and induced a fielder's choice grounder, temporarily banging up Reyes, Elmer Dessens came in to try and end the seventh with runners on the corners and two outs. He got a huge out of Hanley Ramirez to keep the game 4-3 in the Mets favor.
Dessens came back on in the eighth and hit the leadoff batter Cantu but retired the next three hitters in order, setting it up for Francisco Rodriguez, who had been struggling while throwing a ton of pitches.
In the ninth, Rodriguez retired the first two to face him, and it seemed as if it would finally be a quick save for him.
Chris Coghlan came up and dribbled a slow roller back to K-Rod and there was no play, as it went for an infield hit. K-Rod then walked Gaby Sanchez and with Hanley Ramirez up, threw a wild pitch, allowing the lead run to move into scoring position.
Ramirez hit a ground ball up the third base line, where David Wright fielded the ball in foul territory and made a long throw on one hop to first baseman Ike Davis for the final out of the game.
It may have been a closer call, and perhaps a game-tying infield hit, hadn't it been for Ramirez pausing to watch whether the ball would go foul. Rodriguez was once again shaky and probably got helped out by Ramirez, but the Mets got the nail-biting victory and snapped their six-game losing streak to the Marlins.
With the win, the Mets improved to 20-9 at home and will only need one more win this weekend for a series victory.
They resume the series tomorrow afternoon with Jon Niese returning from injury, facing Marlins lefty Nate Robertson.
Series probable pitchers:
June 5
New York: Jon Niese (2010: 1-2, 4.79 ERA) vs. Florida: Nate Robertson (2010: 4-4, 4.30 ERA)
June 6
New York: Hisanori Takahashi (2010: 4-2, 3.21 ERA) vs. Florida: Ricky Nolasco (2010: 5-4, 4.57 ERA)
Upcoming schedule:
New York Mets:
June 5-6 vs. Florida Marlins
June 8-10 vs. San Diego Padres
Florida Marlins:
June 5-6 @ New York Mets
June 8-10 @ Philadelphia Phillies
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
- Login to post comments