MIAMI — While others shun the reality, at least publicly, Mark Canha isn’t afraid to speak the truth: The Mets and Braves are fighting for the NL East title and he’s paying attention to every development.

“This is high-pressure baseball,” the veteran outfielder said after smashing his first career grand slam Saturday in the Mets’ 11-3 victory over the Marlins. “We’re fighting to win the division each and every day and it kind of feels like the playoffs start early for us and we need to embrace it.”

The Mets were already rolling, with a 5-1 lead when Canha came to the plate for the second time in the fourth inning. After Canha had hit his grand slam against reliever Andrew Nardi, manager Buck Showalter was able to start considering what inning he might begin resting starters.

The win, along with the Braves’ 3-1 loss to the Mariners, has the Mets back in first place of the NL East by a half-game.

“We’re in a spot now where we are competing every day, we are in this fight with the Braves,” Canha said. “Everyone knows it. I am not going to shy away from it. We need to get hits in big spots and I think we need to do that on a consistent basis and that is kind of what September baseball has to be about and what playoff baseball has to be about.”

Francisco Lindor and Eduardo Escobar also blasted homers for the Mets a night after the offense went flat in a loss to the reeling Marlins. The Mets will try for the series victory on Sunday to complete the road trip after winning two of three in Pittsburgh.

Canha’s grand slam was the highlight of an eight-run fourth inning in which the Mets sent 11 batters to the plate. The scoring output was the Mets’ largest in an inning since July 9 of last season, when they had a 10-run outburst in the sixth against the Pirates.

Saturday, after Canha walked against Pablo Lopez to lead off the fourth, Daniel Vogelbach singled and Escobar doubled in a run to give the Mets a 2-1 lead. James McCann followed with an RBI single and Brandon Nimmo walked to load the bases. Lindor singled in a run before Jeff McNeil brought in another with a sacrifice fly. Tyler Naquin extended the inning with a two-out walk, ending Lopez’s game, before Canha homered over the left-field fence against Nardi.

“My first major league hit was inches from being a grand slam,” Canha said. “I was joking with Nimmo that I hadn’t even come close since, so I finally got my first one after seven years. Usually when I come up with the bases loaded that is the furthest thing from my mind.”

Lindor’s solo home run in the fifth inning gave him 22 this season. In the seventh, Escobar hit his fourth homer in eight games.

“Now and the way I felt at the beginning of the season were the two best times I have felt physically,” said Escobar, who spent time on the injured list last month with an oblique strain. “I think going to the IL did me a lot of good because I was able to recover from a lot of the little injuries I was dealing with. I was just happy I could contribute today and out offense was able to explode the way that we knew we were capable of doing.”

McNeil delivered an RBI single in the third inning that tied the score 1-1. Lindor doubled with one out to start the rally after he had hit into a double play in his previous two at-bats, dating to Friday.

The Marlins took a 1-0 lead against Carlos Carrasco on Garrett Cooper’s RBI double in the first inning. Carrasco received a double play to help him escape the second inning, then got rolling.

In his second start since returning from the IL after an oblique strain, Carrasco pitched six innings and allowed one run on four hits with six strikeouts. He was removed after 74 pitches.

“I saw all those runs, but I didn’t pay attention,” Carrasco said, referring to the Mets’ scoring outburst. “I just went out there and put a lot of zeroes on the board and didn’t give up.”

With the Mets ahead by 10 runs in the seventh, Showalter replaced Lindor and Pete Alonso on defense. Nimmo was removed in the eighth.