Five games ago, the Mets’ season was supposed to be done — their offense lagging, their powerful pitching less and less intimidating. Now? Well, now it seems nothing can beat them. Not even when the offense lags for a while, or when their starting pitching does nothing but put them in a hole.
In a win as impressive as their sweep of the first-place Cubs, the Mets came back from a six-run deficit to defeat the Marlins, 8-6, at Citi Field on Monday. They overcame a brutal, troubling performance by Matt Harvey, their own struggles with runners in scoring position, and scored two runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth to stun their upstart rivals.
At its center was the man who helped turn the Mets around last year. Yoenis Cespedes, who scored the tying run in the seventh, drove in the go-head runs in the eighth.
With the score tied at 6, Cespedes smoked Fernando Rodney’s fastball to the gap in right-center to score Travis d’Arnaud (leadoff infield single) and Neil Walker, trailing right behind d’Arnaud as the catcher waved his arms wildly for Walker to go for home. That provided the final margin in a game where the Mets trailed 6-0 by the fourth inning.
In another disappointing performance, Harvey pitched 3 2⁄3 innings, and allowed six runs, five earned, on 11 hits. He struggled to bounce back from misplays in the field — his own in the fourth, and those of Brandon Nimmo and Wilmer Flores — and at times seemed completely shaken.
Harvey, who came into the game with the worst run support among qualified pitchers, hasn’t won a game since May 30, going 0-4 in that span. His ERA is now 4.86 — the worst among all Mets’ pitchers.
With one out in the second, Giancarlo Stanton smacked Harvey’s 3-and-2 changeup to left, setting off a series of misadventures that would cost the Mets three runs and rack up Harvey’s pitch count. Leftfielder Nimmo fired to first instead of going to second and Stanton, who probably would have been out if the throw had come in where it was supposed to, instead took second base with ease.
Harvey was able to get Derek Dietrich out swinging for the second out, but Chris Johnson singled through the hole in right in score Stanton. Dietrich originally was called out trying to make it to second on the throw to the plate, but the Marlins challenged the call and he was called safe on review. Harvey appeared shaken after that, and Adeiny Hechavarria doubled to deep center to score Dietrich for the 3-0 lead. Harvey would eventually contain the damage, but not before allowing back-to-back singles to pitcher Tom Koehler and J.T. Realmuto. Martin Prado grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.
But the Marlins weren’t done, and after a quick third inning, more miscues led to Harvey’s unraveling in the fourth.
Johnson and Hechavarria led off with back-to-back singles, and after Koehler popped out, Flores missed a playable ball by Realmulto to load the bases. Then, on what could have been a double play, Prado hit a soft bouncer to Harvey. He caught it on a high hop with plenty of time to get Johnson, but Harvey threw it away to give the Marlins a 4-0 lead. Christian Yelich singled in the next at bat to plate two more and put the Marlins up by six.
The Mets offense, which squandered a bases-loaded chance in the third, got on the board in the fourth on a solo home run from d’Arnaud and another by Granderson in the fifth. They loaded the bases again in the sixth and scored two, on a single from d’Arnaud and Kelly Johnson’s double play ball, making it 6-4.
In the seventh, Walker walked and Cespedes doubled to put runners in scoring position for James Loney, who grounded out to draw the Mets to 6-5. Reliever David Phelps then intentionally walked Asdrubal Cabrera and Flores worked an 0-and-2 count to 2-and-2 — fouling off three pitches along the way — before coaxing a fly ball to center to score Cespedes with the tying run.
The Mets’ bullpen allowed five hits in 5 1⁄3 scoreless innings, culminated by Jeurys Familia’s MLB-leading 29th save in as many chances.
..... - Newsday