Mets rally for win over Marlins
On a rainy day when nothing was going right for the New York Mets, all of a sudden everything did.
T.J. Rivera homered early and hit a two-run double to tie the score in a five-run seventh inning that rallied the Mets past the struggling Miami Marlins 8-7 on Friday night.
“It’s a great feeling to know that you came through in a situation that the team needs you,” Rivera said. “So I let a couple of emotions out a little bit.”
Wilmer Flores drew a fourpitch walk from Kyle Barraclough with the bases loaded and two outs to force in the go-ahead run.
New York opened the inning with six straight hits off normally reliable reliever Brad Ziegler (1-2), who did not retire a batter. The
side-arming right-hander had a 1.35 ERA when he was summoned to protect a four-run lead in the seventh.
“I’ve got to make better pitches and find a way to get softer contact or something,” said Ziegler, charged with a career-high five runs. “It’s tough. Our guys came out and scored some runs early and gave us a good chance to win and I just didn’t get it done.”
Before the game, the injury-depleted Mets added another player to their disabled list: catcher Travis d’Arnaud. Then they fell behind 7-1 when Miami scored six times with two outs in the fourth, highlighted by two-run doubles from Justin Bour and Miguel Rojas.
Curtis Granderson launched a two-run homer off starter Tom Koehler in the bottom half, and New York came all the way back to hand the Marlins their eighth loss in 10 games.
“It’s one of those that doesn’t feel good when you have a lead and you kind of get your right guys in there and yeah, it doesn’t go your way at the end,” Miami manager Don Mattingly said .
Back from a 4-2 trip, the Mets stopped a six-game skid at home and improved to 5-10 at Citi Field. They scored at least five runs for the eighth consecutive game overall — the club’s longest streak in 10 years.
Rivera had a solo shot in the first inning, his first home run this season.
“It was good to kind of treat our fans to that,” second baseman Neil Walker said. “We know we’re going to start playing better here.”
Jerry Blevins (2-0) pitched a scoreless seventh, and Addison Reed worked a one-hit eighth before Jeurys Familia got three quick outs for his third save.
Rivera, the undrafted rookie from New York City who has been filling in at first base for injured Lucas Duda, made a fine scoop for the final out .
“Those are character builder-type wins,” Blevins said. “To come back like that, those are the ones that really push a team forward.
“With the talent we have in our lineup, you’re never really out of a ballgame.”
Flores got the seventh-inning outburst started with a single. Jose Reyes doubled before Rene Rivera and pinch-hitter Asdrubal Cabrera each had an RBI single.
“I think it’s a huge lift,” Mets manager Terry Collins said . “We’ve been through this the last couple years. You’ve got to be resilient. You’ve just got to play nine innings and go up and put good at-bats on. Ziegler is as tough as there is to face and they just put good atbats on, didn’t try to do too much, worked the middle of the field as you saw. Very, very impressed by the way they went about things.”