The Mets were slightly less than Amazin' this past weekend, which was pretty good news for the Fish, who took the first three games of the series, and capped it off Sunday with their first ever four-game sweep of the Mets at home.
It didn't exactly come easy.
The Marlins jumped on Mets starter Jon Niese in a crazy third inning in which twelve Fish were sent to the plate. RBI singles from Cameron Maybin and Gaby Sanchez plated three runs before Jon Niese was lifted due to a hamstring injury. The Fish continued to bash against reliever Hisanori Takahashi, scoring three more runs on a sacrifice by Jorge Cantu, and RBI hits from Ronny Paulino and Cody Ross before the inning finally ended.
The Marlins added to their score in the bottom of the fifth on a solo home run from Dan Uggla, which moved him out of a tie with Derrek Lee for the third-most home runs in Marlins history.
A seven-run lead should have made the rest of the game a breeze for the Fish, but the Mets got it into their heads that they weren't quite ready to just lay down and die, so they staged a little comeback.
Ricky Nolasco wasn't dealing his best stuff Sunday, but he did manage to hold the Mets scoreless through five innings. In the sixth, though, Ricky allowed three runs (2 earned), which cut the Marlins lead down to four runs.
The Marlins bullpen clearly felt bad for New York (and really, who can blame them? Being swept in a four game series is downright embarrassing), so they tried to make it as easy as possible for the Mets to continue their rally. Chris Leroux gave up three runs in 2/3 of an inning, and the Marlins comfortable lead was down to just a single run after the seventh.
Chris Coghlan changed that with one swing of his bat.
Cogz pinch hit in the bottom of the seventh, and jacked his second home run of the series, a three-run shot off of Fernando Nieve to put the Marlins at a 10-6 advantage.
Still, the Mets wouldn't simply lose gracefully. In the eighth, they scored a run off of the Hopper when Angel Pagan singled, stole second, and scored on Gary Matthews' single to left.
Leo Nunez got in on the run-allowing fun as well, giving up a triple to Jason Bay, who scored on Luis Castillo's sacrifice. But one run was all Leo gave up, and he held on to the lead to secure his ninth save of the season, and a four-game sweep of the Mets.
The Fish have won six of their last seven, are two games above .500, and move into a second-place tie with the Nats in the NL East.
Ah, there's just something beautiful about thousands of fans in blue and orange filing dejectedly out of Sun Life Stadium... Gives me warm fuzzies in my tummy.