Mets fall to Marlins in extras as Edwin Diaz falters late again, Sandy Alcantara dazzles

MIAMI — With the season approaching its end, the Mets have little room for error. They trail the first-place Braves by multiple games in the standings and each loss feels more like a death sentence at this point, even if the Mets are still mathematically alive. 

If they don't reach the postseason, they'll look back on losses like the one they suffered Wednesday at loanDepot park. 

In the bottom of the 10th with two outs, Miami's Bryan De La Cruz smoked a ball to the center field wall off Edwin Diaz to score the winning run from third base. The Mets lost to the Marlins, 2-1, in a game that could haunt them depending on how the season's final weeks play out. 

The Mets (70-70) can't afford to be losing games, especially like this. The Braves lost, too, so the Mets remain four games back of Atlanta in the NL East standings. 

"We've just got to recover," Mets manager Luis Rojas said. "We can't hang our heads and we can't look back."

Asked if it's tougher to bounce back after a loss like this, Michael Conforto said: 

Tougher to bounce backl: “No, I don’t think it’s any harder. I think we show up tomorrow and we’ve got a chance to win the series. We're taking it day by day. These are all big games. We’re here to win all these games, but we’re going to show up with the same mentality."

Here are the components that contributed to the loss. 

Mets pitch to Bryan De La Cruz in big spot

De La Cruz is batting .342 with an .869 on-base plus slugging percentage. He is the Marlins' top hitter right now, and he'd already collected two hits in this game. 

The guy behind him in the lineup, Lewin Díaz, is batting .108 with a .505 OPS. He was 0-fo

However, the Mets decided to pitch to De La Cruz in a righty-on-righty matchup. It burned them. 

"Diaz's stuff always plays well," Rojas said. "He's not a guy that gets hit around. The one thing that gets him in trouble is his command. We've seen that." 

The Mets had two bases open, meaning Diaz would have a place for a batter if anything were to occur. Plus, Jazz Chsholm Jr., who scored the winning run, was already at third, so a wild pitch to De La Cruz and a wild pitch to Diaz probably would've resulted in the same outcome: A run. 

Was Javier Báez's ball fair?

In the 10th inning, with the runner starting on second, Javier Báez lifted a fly ball toward the right field line. Marlins right fielder Jesús Sánchez ranged over and stuck his glove out, but dropped it. 

It was ruled foul. 

It looked like it could've been fair, though.

The Mets challenged it, but the call stood. Báez then struck out. 

Was it fair? 

"I thought it was, and I still think it was," Rojas said. "I looked at it on replay and it's really hard to believe that it wasn't reversed to a fair ball. But what can you do, especially after they call it? Nothing you can do, you've just got to keep playing the game."

Conforto, whose seventh-inning solo homer represented the Mets' only run of the night, was on second and had tagged up because he figured the ball would be caught. He might not have scored, but it would've been easier for him to score from third than second. 

"It's a tough one," Conforto said. "That's as close as it gets, but we're moving forward."

Luis Rojas pinch-hits Patrick Mazeika for James McCann 

But this loss is about what occurred before that final play. 

This contest hung in the balance. Michael Conforto tied the game with a solo shot off Sandy Alcantara in the seventh inning. From there, anything could have happened. 

The Mets never scored again. 

They might've received some bad luck in the 10th. Javier Báez hit a fly ball down the right field line that Marlins right fielder Jesús Sánchez dropped, but the umpires ruled it foul. They reviewed the play and, though it appeared it could have been fair, the call stood. 

Later in the inning, the Mets had runners on the corners and manger Luis Rojas pinch-hit Patrick Mazeika for the struggling James McCann. Mazeika hit a dribbler to the mound and the Mets couldn't push across the go-ahead run. 

Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara throws a gem

Righty Sandy Alcantara struck out 14 Mets over nine innings — which was a career high and the most strikeouts for any Marlins pitcher since 2017. He allowed only four hits. He walked one and hit another, but the Mets didn't put much traffic on the bases. 

In the 10th inning, when they started with a man on second due to extra-innings rules, the Mets 

Usually, we've lamented the Mets for their woes with men in scoring position. A sign of Alcantara's dominance: Those issues did not exist on Wednesday. 

Through nine innings, the Mets were 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position — and it would've been 0-for-2 had Jonathan Villar not stolen a base in the ninth before yet another Alcantara strikeout. 

The Mets simply didn't have many baserunners.

“He had command, he had stuff tonight," Conforto said. "Kind of got to tip your cap when a guy goes 114 pitches and had everything working for him."

Luckily, their pitchers kept them in the game — which is a line you've probably heard and read many times throughout this season. 

Rich Hill tossed six innings of one-run baseball before Jeurys Familia, Aaron Loup and Seth Lugo blanked the Marlins over the next three frames. 

In the bottom of the ninth, Lugo served up a one-out double to Alex Jackson, then walked consecutive batters to load the bases. Lugo escaped the jam with a strikeout and a groundout, which sent the game to extras. 

But this has been the story many times this season. The Mets' pitchers gave them a chance, but their offense failed to take advantage. 

It has happened over and over and over again. 

Now, the Mets are at a point where each loss brings them closer to elimination. 

"Obviously we're down to crunch time now," Hill said. "We're in an every-game-is-a-must-win situation. I think the one thing is we continue to keep fighting hard. ...Running into hot pitching when you have must-win games for us is obviously a tough recipe."

Justin Toscano is the Mets beat writer for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to all Mets analysis, news, trades and more, please subscribe today and download our app.

Email: toscanoj@northjersey.com 

Twitter: @justinctoscano