Marlins hand deGrom latest hard-luck loss

NEW YORK — Jacob deGrom took his latest hardluck loss in a record-setting season, getting outpitched by Jose Urena as the Miami Marlins beat the New York Mets, 5-3, on Tuesday night.

In a close race for the NL Cy Young Award despite his pedestrian record, deGrom (8-9) gave up only Lewis Brinson's two-run double in seven stellar innings. The right-hander allowed three hits and struck out nine, his major league-low ERA climbing just a tick from 1.68 to 1.71.

After his outing was pushed back two days because of rain, deGrom held his opponent to fewer than four runs for the 26th straight start — breaking a big league mark set by King Cole in 1910 with the Chicago Cubs.

But in a recurring theme, all the Mets could muster at the plate was Michael Conforto's solo homer off Urena (6-12) and Kevin Plawecki's two-run shot against Drew Steckenrider with two outs in the ninth.

Conforto has homered in three consecutive games for the first time in his career.

JT Riddle came off the bench and homered into the right-field upper deck in his first at-bat for Miami since returning from a sore left wrist. After missing five games, Riddle connected in the eighth against reliever Anthony Swarzak, who made his first appearance since Aug. 3. The righthander was recently activated from the disabled list after missing time with shoulder inflammation.

Miami got three straight hits off Robert Gsellman to start the ninth, including an RBI triple by Brian Anderson and Derek Dietrich's run-scoring double.

Urena permitted one run and four hits in 6 1⁄3 innings.

A resurgent Brinson doubled off the center-field fence with two outs in the fourth. After that, deGrom set down his final 10 batters. But he is 0-2 in four starts this season against the lastplace Marlins, who were rained out the previous two days — including Monday in New York.