Gut Reaction: Mets 5, Marlins 3 (6/24/22)

Francisco Lindor and Mark Canha both homered and the Mets took advantage of a wacky sixth inning to plate three runs, leading to a 5-3 win over the Marlins and their ace Sandy Alcantara Friday night in Miami.

The Marlins tied the game, 2-2, in the bottom of the fifth inning. But second baseman Jazz Chisholm injured himself running the bases and was replaced defensively for the sixth. Miami was already playing without its starting shortstop, so it was a makeshift infield that would end up committing some gaffes to aid the Mets in scoring the go-ahead runs.

Tomas Nido reached on an infield single which might have been turned into an out. Brandon Nimmo followed with a bunt hit that almost certainly would have been an out with a more experienced fielder. But that paled with what came next.

Starling Marte hit a ball to the right side that should have been a double play. Nimmo fell to the ground two-thirds of the way to second base. The Miami infielder tagged Nimmo but he did it with an empty glove, as he had already transferred the ball to his throwing arm. The second base umpire called Nimmo out and the first base ump did likewise with Marte.

Buck Showalter challenged both calls. The one at first base was pretty straight forward and there was little doubt that was going to be overturned. But instant replay also reversed the out call at second, as the umpire’s out call ultimately was ruled to have deceived Nimmo, who made no attempt to get up and run to the base.

The end result was bases loaded with Francisco Lindor at the plate. Lindor easily had the best at-bats against Alcantara up to this point and the pitcher was clearly ruffled from losing two outs to replay. He was uncharacteristically wild with a few pitches and when he put one in the strike zone, Lindor ripped it for a bases-clearing double to give the Mets a 5-2 lead.

Taijuan Walker started the night and pitched well after a shaky start. He retired the side in order in the sixth inning and went back to the mound for the seventh. But when the leadoff hitter had a soft single to start the inning, Showalter went to the pen for a mid-inning pitching change, because those always work so well.

Drew Smith came on and walked the next two hitters to load the bases. He proceeded to get two strikeouts to the next two batters because the hitters bailed him out by swinging at balls. The next batter kept the bat on his shoulder and Smith walked him on four pitches. Showalter again went to the pen and brought on Adam Ottavino, who got the last out of the seventh and also pitched a scoreless eighth.

Edwin Diaz came on in the ninth inning and he recorded the save, doing so without notching any strikeouts, which was quite a shock given his cartoon-like 17.57 K/9 entering the game. Almost as unusual was that Jon Berti was caught stealing after reaching on a fielder’s choice, ending a streak of 21 consecutive stolen bases.

The win snapped a two-game losing streak and upped the Mets’ record to 46-26 on the year. It kept alive the team’s stretch of not having a three-game losing streak all season.