MIAMI – Mission unaccomplished.
Not only were the Mets supposed to fatten up in Washington last weekend (they didn’t), the plan called for a South Beach beat-down of another NL East doormat before returning home for the Subway Series.
Instead, the Marlins pounced on this lifeless bunch, using Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s go-ahead homer against Jeurys Familia in the eighth inning to beat the Mets, 3-2, at loanDepot park.
The Mets lost two of three games in the series and finished 4-4 on a road trip they had hoped would springboard them toward the NL East lead. They are now five games behind the Braves.
“There’s teams that are not fighting for the playoffs and they are focused,” Javier Baez said. “They have got that feeling that we need: about not trying so hard, about seeing the ball and slow everything down, and that’s the way we need to be.”
Familia entered in the eighth and recorded two outs before Chisholm hammered a 98 mph sinker into the upper deck in right to give the Marlins their margin of victory. The Mets led 2-0 in the sixth, but couldn’t add on, finishing 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
Pete Alonso tripled leading off the eighth, but that went wasted as the Mets failed to bring in the run. Baez and J.D. Davis both grounded out to the left side, and after Michael Conforto received an intentional walk, Richard Bleier retired pinch-hitter Jeff McNeil.
“It’s happened a couple of times this season, but we have been better lately,” manager Luis Rojas said, referring to the failure to bring in the runner from third with no outs. “We expect the guys to be better as we move forward from this game.”
The Marlins tied it 2-2 in the seventh on their third infield hit of the inning. Lewis Brinson hit a dribbler toward third that Brad Hand fielded and bounced past Alonso, allowing Isan Diaz to score from second. Conforto retrieved the ball and threw out Brinson at second to end the inning.
Hand, after replacing Marcus Stroman, allowed an infield single to Diaz, but the Mets then caught a break: Hand unloaded a pitch to the backstop, but the ball caromed to James McCann, who nailed pinch-runner Alex Jackson attempting to reach third.
Stroman lasted 6 1/3 innings and surrendered one run on four hits with seven strikeouts. The right-hander departed after getting fooled on Sandy Leon’s squib that became an infield single in the seventh.
“We know we’re in every single game,” Stroman said. “What makes it even more frustrating is we’re kind of right there at the end and a couple of things don’t go our way and then it feels like you have a loss.”
The Marlins got close in the sixth on Chisholm’s RBI fielder’s choice that sliced the Mets’ lead to 2-1. Stroman plunked Eddy Alvarez to begin the inning and surrendered a single to Miguel Rojas that put runners on the corners. Chisholm got as far as third base following his run-scoring ground out, but Stroman struck out Jesus Sanchez to end the threat.
A two-out rally against Marlins lefty Jesus Luzarado gave the Mets a 1-0 lead in the first. Baez cleared the fence in right-center — on one bounce, for a double — before Luzarado walked Davis and Conforto in succession. On the latter, Luzarado unleashed his second wild pitch of the inning, allowing Baez to score.
Baez homered in the second inning, extending the Mets’ lead to 2-0. The blast was Baez’s seventh in 28 games since the Mets. It was his fifth homer since returning from the injured list on Aug. 22.
“We had one guy that moved our offense basically tonight, and it was Javy, with his base-running abilities and the homer he hit,” Rojas said.