Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Bour’s 2 homers not enough
Mets hit back on big night for Cabrera, Flores
MIAMI — The night before, Justin Bour was lamenting his wild throw that cost the Marlins a run in the series-opening loss to the Mets.
But the real hurt has been felt at the plate, where the Marlins cleanup hitter has been mired in a slump since spring training. Entering Tuesday he was batting .162 with no home runs and two runs batted in.
“It would be nice to get J.B. going,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said wistfully before the series began. “I know that he will. Sooner rather than later would be good.”
Bour finally got going Tuesday in the fifth inning when he smacked a Jacob deGrom fastball for an opposite-field, two-run homer that briefly put the Marlins ahead 4-3.
He did it again two innings later — another tworun shot to the opposite field off a different pitcher with the same first name, reliever Jacob Rhame.
Bour’s two bashes weren’t enough as the Mets put three of their own over the fences, including two by Asdrubal Cabrera (one from each side of the plate).
Yoenis Cespedes’ tworun double in the ninth off Brad Ziegler sent the streaking Mets to an 8-6 victory for a 9-1 start to the season.
A throwing error by third baseman Brian Anderson fueled the decisive rally.
Nonetheless, Bour’s bat coming to life is encouraging for Miami’s low-octane offense. The dugout celebrations were extra exuberant in light of his recent struggles at the plate and the team’s need for its only genuine home run hitter to get his bat going.
Bour was 0 for 2 on the night, dropping his average to .154 before the homers.
DeGrom threw a 94-mph fastball up in the zone on the outer edge of the plate, and Bour went with it and launched it just over the fence in left.
It was only the fourth homer in 11 games for Miami.
Bour’s second homer came off the first pitch he saw from Rhame, a 97-mph fastball, and he hit a towering drive that carried over the wall as it drifted toward the line.
The first homer capped a four-run fifth that wiped out a 3-0 deficit, aided by a couple of hits that just eluded Mets third baseman Todd Frazier.
Yadiel Rivera started it with a pinch-hit single off Frazier’s glove near the line. After Derek Dietrich singled cleanly to right, Miguel Rojas hit a sharp grounder to the left side that skipped off Frazier’s glove to drive in Rivera.
Starlin Castro sent Rojas home with a sacrifice fly to bring Bour to the plate.
The Mets quickly tied it when Frazier led off the sixth with a double and scored on Juan Lagares’ sacrifice fly.
New York also responded immediately to Bour’s second homer when Wilmer Flores led off the eighth with his first of the season off Kyle Barraclough. Two batters later, Cabrera connected for his second of the night on a 3-0 pitch.
Caleb Smith showed his ineffective start in Philadelphia (three runs, six walks allowed in three innings) was largely due to being unable to get a feel for his pitches with temperatures in the 40s.
Smith struck out seven in five innings Tuesday in an outing more in line with his first in the season-opening series at Marlins Park.
But when the Mets hit him, they hit him solidly. Three extra-base hits figured in runs in three separate innings, including Cabrera’s bases-empty homer in the fourth.
Smith struck out Cabrera in the first inning on a slider at the knees. The next time up he threw him a fastball at the top of the zone, and the veteran tomahawked it into the Clevelander in left to put the Mets ahead 2-0.
“You could tell he didn’t have a feel for the ball,” Mattingly said of the cold day in Philly. “He was 94, 95 [mph] here with good command of his breaking ball.”
Smith warms up: Castro off to fast start:
Castro’s single in the first inning extended his streak of reaching base to all 11 games this season. The franchise record for most games reaching base safely to start a Marlins career is held by Kevin Millar with 17.
The second baseman had hits in the first eight games until Sunday at Philadelphia, but he walked twice in that game. Castro has hits in all seven games at Marlins Park.