Mets vs. Marlins Recap: Against the Marlins, Mets are once again off the Marc

After finding themselves in the midst of a five-game winning streak following a sweep of their crosstown rivals, the Mets flew down to Miami to face a woeful Marlins team that was in the midst of their own streak – a nine-game losing skid. With this information, all signs pointed towards a Mets victory, that is until the game actually started and the Mets realized that they must've forgotten their offense in the Bronx. The Marlins snapped the Mets' win streak last night, defeating our heroes 5-1 on a mostly quiet evening of baseball.

Shaun Marcum was handed the ball for the Mets, fresh off of what was easily his best start of the season last Sunday against the Braves. The lineup Miami put out on Friday, to put it generously, seemed bereft of big league talent, so all signs pointed towards Marcum continuing his stretch of dominance. Fortunately, that scenario played out for six innings, as the soft-tossing righty danced around a few baserunners here and there to tame the Marlins. Their biggest threat to that point came in the fifth inning, when after a pair of singles and an intentional walk loaded the bases with one out, Marcum got Jeff Mathis to ground into an inning ending double play.

The Mets, meanwhile, faced off against righty Jacob Turner. The former top prospect of the Tigers, acquired last year in the Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante trade, was making his season debut for Miami and didn't disappoint. The Mets did have a runner on base in the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th inning against Turner but were unable to cash any of them in. Ultimately, Turner tossed seven shutout innings, allowing five hits and striking out three.

The tide turned in the Marlins' favor in the bottom of the seventh. With Marcum still on the hill, Derek Dietrich hit a scorching ground ball into right field that rolled far enough into the outfield to turn into a double. The next batter was young Marcell Ozuna, who had three hits on the evening. The second of those hits was a bloop single in that seventh on an 0-2 fastball that Ozuna sort of checked his swing on. Luckily for the Fish, the ball found its way just over Daniel Murphy's glove into right field, putting runners at the corners with nobody out.

After striking out Chris Coghlan on three consecutive changeups below the strikezone, Ed Lucas stepped into the box and delivered another bloop hit into right field. For Lucas, it was his first big league hit and for the Marlins, it was their first lead of the night. With runners again at the corners, Marcum walked notorious Mets killer Greg Dobbs to get to the light-hitting catcher Mathis. On the third pitch of the at bat, Mathis lined a ball to Rick Ankiel in center field for a sacrifice fly, making the score 2-0 Marlins. It wasn't over there, though, as pinch hitter Jordan Brown ripped open the flood gates with a two-run double into the left-center field gap, chasing Marcum from the game.

Down 4-0, the Mets scratched out their lone run when Daniel Murphy doubled to deep left center field, chasing home Omar Quintanilla from first base. With Murphy on second, the Mets had a slight glimmer of hope that quickly faded as David Wright struck out looking to end the threat. In the eighth, the Marlins tacked on an insurance. Greg Burke entered and after a Quintanilla throwing error put a runner at second base, Marcell Ozuna pulled a groundball down the third base line and into the left field corner for a run scoring double, closing out the scoring and most of the hope for the Mets.

SB Nation Coverage

* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* Fish Stripes Gamethread

Win Probability Added

(What's this?)

Big winners: Omar Quintanilla (.025), John Buck (.009)
Big losers: Rick Ankiel (-.171), David Wright (-.107)
Teh aw3s0mest play: John Buck's infield single in the 7th inning (+6.0%)
Teh sux0rest play: Ed Lucas' RBI single in the 7th inning (-14.8%)
Total pitcher WPA: -.053
Total batter WPA: -.447
GWRBI!: Ed Lucas