Tylor Megill threw six shutout innings, Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso hit late back-to-back home runs, Starling Marte also homered and the Mets took advantage of some Miami wildness Friday afternoon, beating the Marlins, 9-3, in the home opener at Citi Field.
The Mets, coming off getting swept in three games in Milwaukee, evened their record at 4-4 with the victory. They are now 11-4 in home openers at Citi.
For Alonso, it was the 150th homer of his career, putting him by himself into sixth place on the Mets’ all-time leaderboard. He had been tied with Carlos Beltrán.Here are the takeaways...
- The Mets took a 2-0 lead in the third inning, thanks to a walk-a-thon by Marlins starter Edward Cabrera and some Miami ineptness. Cabrera, already starting against the Mets for the second time this season, walked six in four innings in his first effort and had trouble with control again Friday. He walked Brandon Nimmo, Marte and Lindor to start the fourth inning and then got close to escaping by striking out both Alonso and Jeff McNeil, catching them looking at breaking balls.
Cabrera had wriggled out of the third inning after walking the first two batters, but couldn’t pull off a similar trick in the fourth – Mark Canha capped an eight-pitch at-bat by walking to force in the game’s first run. Then Daniel Vogelbach hit a weak grounder between first and second. It seemed like a natural for the final out, but first baseman Garrett Cooper ranged too far to his right to try to field the ball and reliever Huascar Brazoban didn’t get to first base in time to cover. Vogelbach had an infield single and an RBI for a 2-0 Met lead. It was the Mets’ first hit of the game.
- In the top of the fourth inning, Jean Segura lined a ball off Megill’s lower right leg. The pitcher went down and stayed down for a moment to collect himself before getting back up. Fair enough – the ball was hit 108 miles per hour. Megill declared himself OK after a few warmup pitches and remained in the game.
- Megill, making his second start of the season against the Marlins, was sharper this time. The liner off his leg did not appear to bother him at all as he threw six shutout innings against Miami, allowing only three hits. He struck out three and walked two in trimming his season ERA to 1.64. Megill had struggled with his fastball in his first start against Miami, a win in which he allowed two runs in five innings, and relied on breaking stuff. Friday, he seemed much happier with the fastball, throwing it 50 times over 88 pitches.
- In the bottom half, the Mets added a run to their lead. Tomas Nido singled to start the inning and snap an 0-for-10 skid. Nimmo walked for the third time and, one out later, Alonso singled through the left side. Nido scored from second but might’ve gotten lucky that the throw to the plate struck his foot – he might’ve been out otherwise. Whatever the case, Nido scored for a 3-0 Met lead.
- With two out in the sixth inning, Marte smacked his first home run of the season, blasting a curve by reliever Matt Barnes over the wall in left-center and extending the Met lead to 4-0.
- In the seventh, Eduardo Escobar drove in a run on a fielder’s choice and Nido knocked one in with a sac fly to push New York’s lead to 6-0.
- The Mets were cruising, but the Marlins cut their deficit in half in the eighth inning when Cooper smashed a three-run homer off reliever Dennis Santana. Santana had gotten the first two outs of the inning but walked consecutive hitters before Cooper homered. It’s Cooper’s 41st career homer, nine of which have come against the Mets.
- Lindor and Alonso quickly answered back, though. Lindor slugged his first homer of the year, a two-run shot, in the bottom of the eighth. Alonso immediately followed with his milestone blast giving the Mets a 9-3 lead.
- The Mets drew 12 walks against Miami pitchers. Brandon Nimmo walked four times in a game for the first time in his career. The Mets scored nine runs on six hits despite squandering several opportunities, too – they were 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position on the day and left nine on base.
- The Mets did not commit an error in the game, meaning they’ve now set a club record for the most consecutive games without an error to start the season – eight.