Marlins blow a six run lead, fall to the Mets 8-7

After four innings, it looked like the Marlins (12-16) were about to cruise to another easy victory against the Mets (13-15). Alas, it was not meant to be. A disastrous seventh inning resulted in the Marlins blowing a 7-1 lead and losing to the Mets by the score of 8-7. The Marlins have now lost 8 of their last 10. Not ideal.

After following behind 1-0 in the first inning, the Marlins tied the game up in the third. Martin Prado reached on a single to centerfield, advanced to second after Christian Yelich was hit by a pitch, and was knocked in by the red-hot Marcell Ozuna. He collected his team-leading 24th RBI on a single to to shallow center. I think it’s fair to call Ozuna the team MVP through one month of play.

If you are a Marlins fan, the fourth inning was really fun to watch. The bats erupted for six runs on six hits; all runs scoring with two outs. The rally went like this: single, stolen base, strike out, fly out, single, single, double, intentional walk, double, hit by pitch, double, strike out. Justin Bour and Miguel Rojas drove in two runs a piece, while Giancarlo Stanton and Prado brought home a single run. It seemed like the game was blown open and the Marlins were once again going to get the best of the Mets. Not tonight.

Tom Koehler started the game for the Marlins and he was decent. He didn’t pitch good or bad; he was pretty much vintage Koehler. He went five innings, allowing three runs on four hits, two walks, and struck out three. Those three runs crossed the plate on a T.J. Rivera solo home run in the first inning and a Curtis Granderson two-run shot in the fifth. Don Mattingly decided to pull him for a pinch hitter while only at 78 pitches. Not to be a Monday morning quarterback, but that seemed like an odd decision.

Jarlin Garcia replaced Koehler in the sixth inning and retired the side in order. Boy has he been a bright spot. He has a 1.13 ERA in 8.0 IP. Not too shabby.

Then the seventh inning happened. Boy oh boy was that tough to watch. Brad Ziegler (L, 1-2) started the inning with a 7-3 lead, didn’t record a single out, and left with the score knotted at seven. Wilmer Flores started off with a single, Jose Reyes followed that up with a double, Rene Rivera brought home Flores with a base hit, and then Asdrubal Cabrera singled in another run to make it a 7-5 game. After Michael Conforto laced the fifth straight hit of the inning to centerfield, T.J. Rivera tied the game with a two RBI double to left. Unbelievable. That’s not what you want at all. Six straight hits for the Mets brought them all the way back to tie the game.

Mattingly brought in Kyle Barraclough in hopes of escaping the jam and he almost got the job done. He struck out both Jay Bruce and Neil Walker to creep closer to pulling a houdini. Unfortunately for the Marlins skipper, he could not get the job done. After issuing a questionable intentional walk to Granderson, he walked Flores to force in the go-ahead run. A four run lead was gone in the blink of an eye.

The offense did not do much in the final two innings of the game. Bour was the only baserunner to reach on a shallow single.

The Marlins finished with 13 hits on the evening. Four players had multi-hit games; Prado and Rojas finished with three hits, while Ozuna and Bour each collected two hits.

Below is the Fangraphs win expectancy chart if you want to torture yourself.

Fangraphs

The Marlins and Mets will be back in action tomorrow at 7:10 PM EST. It will be Odrisamer Despaigne taking on Robert Gsellman.