Mets vs. Marlins recap: Daniel Murphy does it all

The Mets are 15-5. This, apparently, is real life. Having arrived in Miami just before sunrise following a late night game against the Yankees on Sunday night, the Mets played one of the fastest games in recent memory against the Marlins. Neither team scored a run until the eighth inning, and it was the Marlins who plated one first. But the Mets won.

Mets starter Dillon Gee made the best start of his 2015 season, dethroning his previous start for that title. A ground ball machine on Monday night—and so far this season in general—Gee needed very few pitches to retire most of the Marlins he faced. Through seven-and-two-thirds innings, he allowed just three hits, but back-to-back-to-back singles at that point to a pinch hitter and the first two hitters he faced in his fourth time through the Marlins’ lineup brought in a run for Miami very late in the game. So that did it for Gee, who struck out three, walked none, and threw just 70 pitches, 57 of which were strikes. Twelve of those strikes were swinging strikes, which is abnormal by Gee’s standards.

That left runners on the corners with Giancarlo Stanton at the plate for Carlos Torres, who got him to pop out to end the inning. He hasn’t pitched every day lately, which is probably good for his arm, but Torres remains a vital piece of the Mets’ bullpen this year, even if his peers tend to generate more attention.

Jarred Cosart needed only 93 pitches to shut the Mets out for eight innings. That might not be quite as impressive as Gee in terms of efficiency, but it was still very, very good. The aforementioned pinch hitter took his place, however, and even if that had not been the case, perhaps the Marlins would have turned to Steve Cishek anyways.

Whatever the case, Juan Lagares led off with a double on a ball that Marlins center fielder Marcell Ozuna misread. Lucas Duda then drew his third walk of the game, but Michael Cuddyer flew out to right field. Daniel Murphy came up next, and honestly a single would have been fine. But the second baseman drilled a three-run home run to turn a one-run deficit into a two-run lead. It was one of the highlights of the season so far.

The Mets had a chance to tack on at least a run after that, but they didn’t. Jeurys Familia took over to pitch the ninth and continued his excellent season by retiring the side in order. He struck out the first batter he faced, Daniel Murphy made an incredible play—ranging to his left and spinning to make a throw to first base—to record the second out, and Wilmer Flores made a relatively routine play on a ground ball to put the game in the books.

The Nationals lost again, too, for the sixth straight time. It was a good night of baseball.

SB Nation GameThreads

* Amazin' Avenue GameThread
* Other Team GameThread

Win Probability Added

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Big winners: Daniel Murphy, +57.7% WPA, Dillon Gee, +14.9% WPA
Big losers: Michael Cuddyer, -24.2% WPA, Kevin Plawecki, -10.1% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Murphy’s home run in the ninth, +65.6% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Martino Prado’s go-ahead single in the eighth, -29.1% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +25.8% WPA
Total batter WPA: +24.2% WPA
GWRBI!: Daniel Murphy