Reyes hits 2-run homer, Mets beat Marlins 4-3
An unlikely candidate stopped the New York Mets’ longest home run drought in more than three years.
MIAMI » An unlikely candidate stopped the New York Mets’ longest home run drought in more than three years.
Jose Reyes hit a two-run homer, helping the Mets beat the Miami Marlins 4-3 on Sunday.
“It was really good,” first-year manager Mickey Callaway said. “I think Jose has been swinging the bat really well when he’s played lately and it’s good to get him in there when you have to give a guy a day off and he’s been producing for us so it’s been really good to see.”
Reyes’ fourth of the season was New York’s first homer since Jeff McNeil went deep in a 6-4 win against Cincinnati on Monday night. The four-game drought was the Mets’ longest since a sixgame stretch from July 19-24, 2015.
Michael Conforto also connected for New York, which took two of three in the weekend series.
“Any time you see the ball go out of the park it feels good,” Conforto said.
Noah Syndergaard (8-2) pitched seven innings while improving to 4-1 in his last five starts. He allowed three runs and seven hits, struck out seven and walked two.
“I felt a lot better mechanically today,” he said. “I worked on it a lot in between starts and today I felt really comfortable out there. I wasn’t really fighting myself on the mound. I really had to dig deep in the seventh inning to get through it.”
Seth Lugo worked around two hits in the ninth while recording his first career save.
Bryan Holaday had two hits and drove in two runs for Miami after he hit a game-ending RBI single in the 11th inning of Saturday night’s 4-3 victory. Rafael Ortega added two hits and swiped two bases in the series finale.
Marlins left-hander Wei-Yin Chen (4-9) allowed four runs, two earned, and four hits in six innings.
“I feel like I could have controlled the game a little bit better than I did out there,” Chen said through a translator. “There’s some parts of it I didn’t do that well. The two long balls kind of hurt the club and that was unfortunate.”
New York jumped in front on Wilmer Flores’ sacrifice fly in the
first, but Starlin Castro hit a tying RBI single in the bottom half.
The Mets went ahead to stay in the second, taking advantage of an error by first baseman Derek Dietrich that put Jose Bautista on with one out. After Kevin Plawecki flied out, Reyes hit a drive to left for a 3-1 lead.
“I didn’t really execute that high pitch well and Reyes is pretty good at hitting inside pitches so he did damage on that pitch,” Chen said.
Conforto added a solo drive in the sixth for his 15th homer.