MIAMI — Steven Matz tossed six shutout innings on his way to his first win in nearly two months, Jose Reyes tripled home a run, and the Mets came through with a pair of clutch hits in the eighth to beat the Marlins, 3-0, on Sunday afternoon.
The victory gave the Mets (52-45) a critical series win and ending a nine-game road trip with a 5-4 record. They pulled within half a game of the second-place Marlins (53-45), who have control of the second wild card.
Yoenis Cespedes and James Loney delivered back-to-back run-scoring singles in the eighth inning off reliever Kyle Barraclough, adding a cushion. To that point, Reyes’ RBI triple in the third had been the game’s only run.
Matz (8-6) won for the first time since revealing in June that he is pitching through a bone spur in his elbow that will require surgery, which he and the team hope to delay until the offseason.
Matz gave up four hits, walked two and struck out six before yielding to a bullpen that strung together three shutout innings.
Hansel Robles, who has emerged as a late-inning weapon, struck out two in a scoreless seventh. He lowered his ERA to 1.47 with 21 Ks since June 21, a span of 18 1⁄3 innings.
Addison Reed lowered his ERA to 1.37 since May 1 with a scoreless eighth, which came against the heart of the Marlins’ lineup.
In the ninth, closer Jeurys Familia nailed down his 51st consecutive save dating to Aug. 1, 2015, equaling Jose Valverde for the third-longest regular season streak in big-league history.
With that, Matz finally reaped the rewards of gutting out a painful elbow condition. In his previous nine starts, Matz was 0-5 with a 4.73 ERA, and the team won just two of those outings.
Though he kept the Marlins scoreless, Matz spent much of the afternoon with his back on the ropes, holding off trouble. He didn’t enjoy a clean inning until the sixth, which was also his last.
Matz’s biggest escape came in the fifth. After two-out hits by Martin Prado and Christian Yelich, Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton stepped to the plate, fresh off his four-hit game on Saturday.
Stanton walked with first base open in the first, and Matz appeared cautious once more, falling behind in the count 2-and-0. But Matz flipped a breaking ball that Stanton hit weakly to short, and he was out by a step.
Matz did not allow a run in a start for the first time since May 25, when he tossed eight shutout innings against the Nationals in his last victory.
In his first major-league start in centerfield, Michael Conforto made a diving catch, then finished with two hits before he was lifted for a pinch hitter in the seventh.
..... - Newsday