Start of homestand foiled
Urena’s stuttering start too much for Miami to overcome
MIAMI — The Mets were the sleep-deprived team after arriving in thewee hours of Monday morning after winning a 12-inning game in Washington.
The Marlins didn’t have that excuse later that night. Yet theywere the ones who appeared to be sleepwalking through much of a4-2 loss in the opener of a six-game homestand at Marlins Park.
Marlins starter Jose Urena digging an early hole and a fielding blunder in the late innings were too much to overcome against a streaking opponent that improved to 8-1.
Reliever Kyle Barraclough did a commendable job of preventing the Mets from blowing it open in the seventh after first baseman Justin Bour sailed a throw into center field while attempting to start a double play.
Barraclough gave up a run-scoring hit to Amed Rosario for a 4-2 New York lead, but avoided further damage by striking out the Mets’ two most dangerous hitters, Yoenis Cespedes and Jay Bruce, with the bases loaded, both with the count full.
He got Cespedes swinging at a
slider dropping out of the zone. Bruce thought he had the walk, but Barraclough got the call on a fastball at the knees.
That kept Miami in the game, but it was an uphill climb all the way after Urena created a 3-0 deficit through repeatedly falling behind hitters and having to serve the predictable fastballs that had Mets hitters licking their chops in anticipation.
The Mets got their leadoff hitter on base in eachof the first three innings, and two of them scored.
Most problematic was the second inning when Urena served a four-pitch walk to Todd Frazier, then had Asdrubal Cabrera single off a two-strike fastball.
After Adrian Gonzalez worked the count full, the veteran was primed for Urena’s fastball and pulled it for a single to right, driving in the first of two runs in the inning.
In the third, Urena nearly pitched around a leadoff double by Rosario, but catcher Bryan Holaday overran a pop foul near the Marlins dugout. Given a second life, Bruce lined a run-scoring single to left.
Meanwhile, the Marlins were making it easy for Noah Syndergaard by swinging early in the count. The Mets ace needed only 22 pitches to retire the first six batters he faced.
Earlier, Marlins manager Don Mattingly said Miami batters would be looking to attack pitches in certain favorable hitting zones.
“Guys like him, you don’t want to try take the whole plate,” Mattingly said. “Try to stay in zones that you want to try to handle only part of the plate and count on him making some mistakes. They all make mistakes.”
The Marlins got their first hit on Braxton Lee’s
leadoff single in the third. But Lee was thrown out by Cespedes trying to stretch it.
Syndergaard wasn’t tested until the fifth when the Marlins loaded the bases on an error and two walks. With two outs, Derek Dietrich put together a quality at-bat and served a run-scoring single to left off a 98-mph sinker. But the threat ended there as Miguel Rojas grounded into a force play.
The Marlins’ most reliable hitters combined to trim the deficit to 3-2 in the sixth, when Starlin Castro led off with a single and Brian Anderson drove him home with a double. Anderson, who had the decisive two-run double in Sunday’s win at Philadelphia, got ahead in the count and turned on a slider up in the zone and yanked it into the corner in left.
Anderson’s double was the only extra-base hit off Syndergaard in six innings. Bour compounded his miscue in the field by continuing his funk at the plate, going 0-for-4 to drop his average to .162.
The Marlins cleanup hitter has driven in two runs so far this season and has only one extra-base hit, a double.
“He definitely hasn’t gotten it going yet,” Mattingly said. “We need him to. He’s a guy that’s a power threat in themiddle of our order. It would be nice to get JB going. I know that he will. Sooner rather than later would be good.”
Also struggling is rookie center fielder Lewis Brinson, who wasn’t in the starting lineup for the first time this season. He entered as part of a doubleswitch in the seventh inning. He grounded out and struck out to extend his hitless drought to 0-for-18.