Jeff Locke took the mound tonight against the Mets and looked to get his first win of the year in his sixth start. The last time that Locke won a start was on July 1st, 2016, when he went five innings and gave up three runs while leading the Pirates to a 7-3 victory over the A’s.

Tonight, almost a year to the day later, Locke would once again give up three runs, this time over 5 ²⁄₃ innings. Unfortunately, there was no win to be had for Locke tonight.

The air went out of Marlins Park quickly, as Locke’s first inning didn’t exactly go as planned. Curtis Granderson led off the game with a walk. Then, on a 2-1 fastball, Asdrubal Cabrera homered to left to give the Mets a 2-0 lead.

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After Jay Bruce singled, and a Travis d’Arnaud walk, former Marlin Jose Reyes hit a two-out single to left to score Bruce, putting the Mets up 3-0. D’Arnaud was thrown out at third to end the inning and stop the bleeding.

Locke would then settle in to retire twelve straight Mets, but the cat was already out of the bag and the Marlins were never competitive. The Mets scored five more runs against the relief trio of McGowan, Nicolino and Tazawa to seal the deal.

The Fish were stymied by the oft-injured Steven Matz. The hard-throwing lefty from Long Island went seven shutout innings, scattering six hits and one walk while fanning four. Matz mixed up his two-seam and four-seam fastballs while mixing in his curve ball to slice and dice the Marlins batters. Matz and two relievers gave up only seven singles in the win.

What drew the most attention from the TV broadcast crew was not not the action on the field, but the Marlins fantasy auction, and the models taking care of the “Big Board” and “Mini Board” which listed the auction items. Given the way the game was going, who can blame them?

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Back to the drawing board on Thursday night, as the Marlins will face curve-ball specialist Seth Lugo as Jose Urena hopes to have more luck and more support than Locke did.

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Talk about a game that was over early!

Fish Bites

Turning Point: The Cabrera home run in the first inning

King Fish: Steven Matz, with seven shutout innings

Flounders: Everyone except for the lovely ladies of the Fantasy Auction!