Mets erupt for eighth-run fourth in big win over Marlins
Mark Canha of the Mets is congratulated by Francisco Lindor after hitting a grand slam in the fourth inning against the Marlins at loanDepot park on Saturday in Miami, Fla. Credit: Getty Images/Eric Espada
MIAMI — If there were any questions about how the Mets would respond — mentally, emotionally, statistically — to falling out of first place for the first time in five months, they provided an answer Saturday night: just fine.
They pummeled the Marlins, 11-3, on the strength of their highest-scoring inning in more than a year, an eight-run fourth. With Atlanta’s late 3-1 loss in Seattle, the Mets toggled back into first place in the NL East — again by a half-game — after a one-day stay in second.
Francisco Lindor and Eduardo Escobar finished a triple shy of the cycle. Every Mets starter except Tyler Naquin had a hit by the fourth, and he joined them with a double in the eighth. Jeff McNeil had two hits and two RBIs. Mark Canha delivered the biggest blow, his first career grand slam, which doubled the Mets’ lead from four to eight after they opened the fourth tied.
“It kind of feels like the playoffs start early for us. We need to embrace it, we need to relish it,” Canha said. “We’re in a spot now where we’re competing every day, we’re in this fight with [Atlanta], everyone knows it. I’m not going to shy away from it. We need to get hits in big spots, and we need to do that on a consistent basis. That’s what September baseball has to be about and what playoff baseball has to be about.”
Highlighting the big night for the offense was the Mets’ continued ownership of Pablo Lopez, whom they shellacked for eight runs in 3 2⁄3 innings. He evaded early trouble when several hard-hit balls became outs but fell apart in the fourth.
In four games against the Mets this year, Lopez has an 11.34 ERA. In 24 games against everybody else, he has a 3.15 ERA.
“Even though he hasn’t really pitched well against us, you’ve seen him go out there and throw eight innings against another team,” Escobar said through an interpreter. “So it’s not that he’s a bad pitcher. But we’re been able to see him well because of how much we’ve seen him this year.”
Canha said: “Baseball is just kind of like that. All it takes is a little bit of a falter, a little bit of a window and for somebody to jump on it.”
In the case of the game-changing fourth, the person who jumped on it was Escobar, in Canha’s view. He drove in the first run with a double to right-center, the third of six straight batters who reached base to begin the inning for the Mets (88-52).
Escobar is hitting .405 with four homers in 13 games since returning from the injured list last month.
“The grand slam is cool and all, but what Eduardo has been doing for us lately is a lot bigger and kind of more important to today’s win than what I did,” Canha said. “It was nice to hit the grand slam and cap that inning off, but he really jump-started us there. He deserves a lot of the credit.”
Meanwhile, Carlos Carrasco contributed his first good start after a month of injury and ineffectiveness, holding the Marlins to one run and four hits in six innings. Miami (57-81) scratched that run across with two outs in the first — Joey Wendle singled and Garrett Cooper doubled — but Carrasco settled in to retire 11 consecutive batters from the second into the sixth. He struck out six and walked none.
Carrasco probably would have pitched deeper if this hadn’t been his second start back from the IL. He threw 74 pitches, up from 54 last time.
“Carlos was the highlight for me,” Buck Showalter said. “The key was the way Carlos kept attacking people and getting a zero, get right back out there and make the runs you scored [matter].
“There’s nothing worse than scoring four or five runs and coming back out and giving up two. It makes you wonder how much is enough? How much is enough? When you can stay away from that mentality, when pitchers make leads matter, it creates a good atmosphere.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
