Two of the New York Mets’ All-Stars led the struggling Mets to their first road series win since early April with Sunday’s 6-2 victory over the Miami Marlins.
Starting pitcher Jacob deGrom (5-7) held the Marlins to a run on six hits with six strikeouts in five innings, and Jeff McNeil, the National League’s batting average leader, homered on the first pitch of the game and delivered an important outfield assist for New York.
Robinson Cano added his second home run in as many days, a solo shot in the seventh, and went 4-for-5 to raise his batting average to .251.
The Mets tagged Marlins starting pitcher Sandy Alcantara (4-9) for four runs on nine hits in six innings in Alcantara’s first start since appearing in the All-Star Game.
The Mets loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth inning and scored two runs. Former Marlin Adeiny Hechavarria’s ground out drove in Cano, and Michael Conforto beat out a ground ball to Marlins second baseman Starlin Castro to score Todd Frazier.
New York led 1-0 after one pitch when McNeil homered to right field. The Mets were inches away from a second run in the inning, but Curtis Granderson robbed Home Run Derby champ Pete Alonso of a home run with a catch at the left field fence.
Alonso drove in a run with a sacrifice fly in the eighth for his 69th RBI of the season.
Defense aided the Mets in key situations. The Marlins had the bases full with one out in the second, and got a sharp single from Miguel Rojas to drive in their first run. On the play, McNeil fired a strike from right field to home plate for the tag on Granderson to end the inning.
The Marlins’ first two hitters opened the bottom of the fifth with singles, but deGrom struck out Garrett Cooper and induced a double play ground out from Brian Anderson.
The Marlins loaded the bases with one out in the seventh against the beleaguered Mets’ bullpen, which had entered the game with the second-worst earned run average (5.54) in the National League. Seth Lugo undid the two walks and a single allowed by Jeurys Familia and got the last two outs of the inning.
Cooper hit his 10th home run of the season and Rojas had three hits for the Marlins, who have lost eight of 10.
–Field Level Media
