Marlins 8 – Mets 6
MIAMI – Optimism has suddenly been replaced by desperation.
Last Wednesday, the Mets were nine outs away from sweeping the Phillies and being two games over .500 and one game out of first place. But after yesterday’s 8-6 loss capped a weekend sweep by the Marlins, the Mets have quickly lost four straight.
They’re now 23-26, 6 ½ games out of first and in danger of seeing their hopeful season turn irrelevant.
Yesterday’s loss turned in a bizarre seventh inning when the game was tied 6-6. With one out, Juan Pierre reached on an error. Kaz Matsui was charged with the miscue, but Mike Piazza was probably more at fault.
Pierre hit a ball in the hole between short and third, and Matsui stabbed it and fired a one-hopper to first. The hop sent the ball into Piazza’s mitt, but he squatted low to receive it and pulled his foot off the bag. Pierre was safe.
With lefty Mike Stanton pitching, that brought up Mike Lowell, who had won Saturday’s game with a 10th-inning homer. Art Howe would later say he left Stanton in to pitch to the right-handed Lowell because he believed Stanton could possibly prevent the fleet Pierre from stealing.
But after Stanton worked a 1-2 count on Lowell, Pierre then stole second without a throw on the next pitch, a ball. With the count now even and Pierre on second, Howe pulled Stanton to create a righty-righty matchup with David Weathers.
It didn’t work out.
Weathers served up a booming double to left, scoring Pierre easily with the eventual winning run.
It was the capper to a disheartening weekend in Miami where the Mets lost two games by one run and one game by two runs. It seemed symbolic – the Mets appear to be just a slight notch below the division’s first-place team.
Having dropped four straight overall, the Mets are now 1-4 on their 12-game run against the Phillies and Marlins.
Steve Trachsel came in as the Mets’ hottest pitcher, having thrown 14 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings. But he was a disaster yesterday, especially in the first inning when he allowed the first four men to reach base and served up three runs, the highlight coming on Miguel Cabrera’s two-run double.
The Mets rallied in the third, tying the game on back-to-back homers by Karim Garcia (two-run shot) and Jason Phillips.
World Series MVP Josh Beckett was done after that, victimized by a blister on his right middle finger, and the Mets suddenly had momentum.
That lasted for about three minutes, as the Mets’ momentum was snatched away in the bottom half of the inning. With two outs and nobody on, Lowell reached when Shane Spencer – playing his first major league game in center field – dropped a shallow pop-up on the run.
Cabrera hit Trachsel’s next pitch a mile, and it was 5-3. Back-to-back doubles later, the Marlins took a three-run lead with all three runs in the inning unearned.
In the fifth, the Mets looked ready to trim the deficit when they loaded the bases for Todd Zeile with two outs. But after Zeile went down swinging against Nate Bump, the frustrated veteran lifted bat over his head and looked like he might smash it to pieces.
It would have been understandable. The Mets have practically turned bases-loaded spots into a pitcher’s best friend – they’re a staggeringly-bad 5-for-48 (.104) in those situations. It’s the second-lowest average in baseball, ahead of only the Expos.
Still, the Mets came back again. Ty Wigginton blasted a 428-foot solo homer in the sixth, and the Mets scored two more in the seventh to tie it on Karim Garcia’s RBI groundout and Phillips’ second homer of the game, a rocket to left.
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The Four Stops
Armando Benitez, who notched two saves this weekend against his former teammates, celebrates the final out yesterday. Last Tuesday, the Mets were 23-22 and two games out in the NL East. This morning, after four straight losses, they are 23-26 and 6 ½ games back. In those four defeats – by a total of seven runs, the Mets stranded 35 runners.
Here’s a breakdown of how the Mets’ bats were crippled in the clutch:
Date Opp. Result LOB
May 26 Phi. L, 4-7 14
May 28 Fla. L, 1-2 5
May 29 Fla. L, 2-3 7
May 30 Fla. L, 6-8 9
