Close, but no sweep
Straily gives up three two-out runs in loss
“... I thought Dan was pretty good, though. Seven innings, three runs. Pretty much did his job.” Don Mattingly, Marlins manager
MIAMI — Giving up runs with two outs sank Dan Straily on Sunday and scuttled the Marlins’ bid to sweep the weekend series against the Mets and stay ahead of their division rival in the battle to avoid the NL East basement.
His own two-out bunt produced a run and was the highlight of his return from a five-game suspension in a 5-2 loss to the Mets at Marlins Park.
All of the Mets’ runs came with two outs, the first three off Straily.
“It’s frustrating, and obviously trying to get an out each time and wasn’t able to do that each time,” Straily said. “I just had kind of a lack of fastball command at times today.” Once he settled in, Straily put together a solid outing in matching his season high by completing seven innings while allowing three runs and five hits. The right-hander threw 106 pitches (also equaling a season high) on the way to striking out seven with four walks.
“Early on, they nicked us up, but I thought Dan was pretty good, though,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “Seven innings, three runs. Pretty much did his job.”
The damage was done early as Straily allowed a run with two outs in three consecutive innings.
The one that hurt the most was the opposite-field single by opposing pitcher Steven Matz that made it, 3-0, in the fourth. Straily left an 88.7-mph fastball waist-high over the plate and Matz didn’t miss it.
Straily found his rhythm after that and
retired nine of the last 10 batters he faced, yielding only a walk in that span.
That followed his highlight with the bat.
Straily, who takes pride in his ability to bunt, usually when a sacrifice is called for, caught the Mets by surprise with two outs in the fourth and Miguel Rojas on third when he pushed a beauty along the first-base line.
Matz booted the ball in his haste to field it as Rojas scampered home to cut the deficit to, 3-1.
“Being real honest, I was not seeing the ball well off [Matz] at all and I figured that was my only chance to get Miggy home there was to push a bunt down the first-base line,” Straily said. “It took an error, but I got it down and got a run scored. It was the best chance I had to push the run across and that was it.”
Though Matz was charged with an error, had he picked it cleanly it would have been a close play to get Straily at first.
Meanwhile, the Mets victimized Straily repeatedly with two-out hits.
After getting the first two batters in the second, he walked Todd Frazier, then got ahead of Kevin Plawecki 1-2 but couldn’t put him away. The Mets catcher lined a 3-2 fastball to the wall in left-center for a runscoring double.
Again with two outs the following inning, Asdrubal Cabrera drove a 3-1 fastball into the seats in right field. It was Cabrera’s 10th homer in 57 games started against the Marlins.
The Marlins’ had a brief gasp of hope in the seventh when Brian Anderson nearly duplicated his tworun, game-tying homer from Saturday. This time Anderson’s 365-foot drive was caught on the warning track in left.
Cameron Maybin’s first home run of the season was a majestic 421-foot drive to center off Tim Peterson in the eighth, but too late for meaningful impact.