Gordon boosts Miami to another series win

NEW YORK — Giancarlo Stanton homered again and Adam Conley struck out a career-high 11 batters in the Miami Marlins’ 6-4 win over the New York Mets, but the man who changed the game Sunday was Dee Gordon. And the skill that changed the game was his speed.

Gordon was in the middle of all of the Marlins’ rallies, his fleet feet setting the table for Stanton and Christian Yelich behind him. He finished 2-for-5 with two stolen bases and three runs to boost Miami to another series win — a third in a row for a team that is, all of a sudden, only six games back of a wild-card spot.

The Mets felt Gordon’s impact most in the seventh when, with the Marlins ahead by just one, he sent a routine grounder to shortstop. Amed Rosario, a 21-year-old playing in his 19th major-league game, hesitated in throwing to first, allowing Gordon to beat it out for a single.

On the next pitch, Stanton turned on Jacob deGrom’s fastball inside for his 45th home run of the season, this one a three-run shot.

“I was just running fast like I’m supposed to, getting down the line,” Gordon said. “That’s my job, to run the bases the right way.”

Said Stanton: “That changed the whole dynamic of my at-bat for sure.”

In the first and third innings, Gordon stole second and later scored when Yelich singled off the glove of third baseman Wilmer Flores, putting Miami ahead both times.

That, plus Stanton’s homer, was plenty for the lefthanded Conley, who turned in arguably his best start of the year.

Conley had a lot of strikeouts and a little of everything else. He allowed one run on three hits, walking two batters and hitting another. He also threw a wild pitch, singled and struck out the side on 10 pitches in the sixth inning.

“Better as I went, definitely more efficient,” Conley said. “On a day like today, command of the changeup’s good. Command of the slider’s good. Didn’t run into any trouble with the fastball other than [on a Yoenis Cespedes homer]. It’s obviously a lot easier to manage those types of things when you’re able to do what you want to do.”

Conley induced 18 whiffs on the day, including nine on sliders. Those are both career-bests, according to Brooks Baseball.

“For me, just really encouraged in contrast to my last start, where I didn’t feel like I could do anything I wanted to do,” Conley said.