Fish Wrap: Marlins 4, Mets 3

Well it sucks to be Jason Isringhausen this week. Or maybe it just sucks to be a Mets fan.

On Monday night, New York's closer gave up a game-winning grand slam to Mike Stanton in extra innings, and in game two of the Marlins/Mets series Tuesday, he struggled again, logging his second blown save and loss in as many days.

With the victory Tuesday at Citi Field, the Marlins won their series against the Mets, tied them for third place in the NL East, and finally broke even at .500 for the first time since June 12.

But the win didn't come easily.

Chris Capuano made the start for the Mets, and gave the Marlins trouble, allowing only four hits in his six innings. Fortunately for the Fish, two of those hits were solo home runs by Omar Infante in the third and fifth innings. 

Brad Hand was on the hill for the Marlins, and the rookie allowed just two runs in his five innings of work. The Mets tied the game in the third inning when Jose Reyes hit a solo home run, and added another tying run in the fifth when Chris Capuano singled, moved to third on Justin Turner's ground rule double, and scored on a groundout by David Wright.

The bottom of the sixth sucked. For starters,  Brian Sanches took over on the mound, and with the game tied at 2-2 he gave up the go-ahead run to the Mets. Angel Pagan singled, stole second, and moved to third on a wild pitch before Lucas Duda's sac fly gave the Mets a 3-2 lead.  To top things off, Hanley Ramirez injured his shoulder trying to make a play, and had to be assisted off the field.

The Marlins didn't have any luck at all against the Mets' bullpen after the sixth inning, either, until the beautiful ninth rolled around. (Well, beautiful if you're a Florida fan.)

With two out, the Fish were able to score two runs off of Isringhausen. Logan Morrison worked a leadoff walk, Mike Cameron singled, and John Buck got hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out. Bryan Petersen hit a ground ball to Justin Turner, and Buck retreated to first base in order to avoid a double play that would have ended the game. The second baseman did his closer no favors when he threw the ball away for an error that allowed both LoMo and Cameron to score.

Though they had the lead, the Marlins still had to make it through the bottom of the ninth. Randy Choate headed to the hill instead of Leo Nunez, and walked Ronny Paulino to get things started off the on the wrong foot. But refreshed from Monday's blown save, Leo took over with one on and nobody out, and induced a double play before striking out Pridie to end the game. 

Exhale. And exit the Leocoaster to your left. Marlins win.

The Fish are back at .500 and go for the sweep Wednesday.