Cespedes drops Miami in 10th
NEW YORK— The good news for the Marlins on Monday was that in the eighth inning, they matched their total offensive output for their previous 25 turns at bat.
The bad news for the Marlins on Monday was that they only scored one run in the inning — and the game.
Miami’s offensive struggles continued at Citi Field against the Mets, who took the series opener by a 2-1 final on Yoenis Cespedes’ walk-off home run in the 10th inning. The Marlins, the lowest-scoring team in baseball in August, have plated three runs or fewer in eight of their past nine games.
This time, it was Rafael Montero and an unimposing Mets bullpen that did the trick. Montero, a25-year-old called up from Double A to make a spot start in place of a struggling Jacob deGrom, walked six batters in five scoreless innings. It was his first major league start since April 2015 (coincidentally, also against Miami). A parade of New York relievers held the Marlins at bay for five innings, minus a brief eighth-inning rally.
That sliver of offensive hope came with two outs in the frame. Ichiro Suzuki lined a double to center field, not quite splitting the outfielders but forcing Alejandro De Aza to range far enough to his left — toward right field — to allow Ichiro to push for and reach second base.
The next pitch, Xavier Scruggs lined a slider to left. Yoenis Cespedes took an odd route to the ball, which rolled all theway to thewall. Ichrio scored easily.
The Mets struck back in the bottom half of the inning. Jose Reyes doubled to lead off, moved to third on a fly out and scored on A.J.
Ramos’s wild pitch.
Cespedes’ game-ending blast, a no-doubter to left, came with two outs against Nick Wittgren in the 10th.
Jose Fernandez pitched well, albeit not very efficiently. He used 113 pitches — his second-highest total this season— to get through six scoreless innings, walking four and allowing three hits. He also struck out six.
One of those came during a fourth-inning duel with the Mets’ best hitter, Cespedes. When Fernandez and Cespedes worked each other to a full count, Fernandez offered another curveball. Fouled off. Then a fourseam fastball. Fouled off again. On the ninth pitch of the at-bat, Fernandez painted a corner down and away with a 98-mph fourseamer. Called third strike.
Small victories like that were the only wins on the night for the Marlins.
Ichiro singled and stole second base in the fourth inning,
in addition to his double in the eighth. With 3,011 career hits, he passed Wade Boggs for No. 27 on baseball’s all-time list. And with 10 steals this year, Ichiro reached
double-digits for the 16th time in 16 major league seasons.