Mets vs. Marlins Recap: Harvey and lineup dominate, bullpen avoids meltdown

What seemed like an entirely stress-free game briefly turned into a Marlins Park nightmare, but the Mets managed to wake up before it was too late. Matt Harvey had little issue throwing seven shutout innings against a depleted Marlins lineup, and the Mets scored runs in bunches as they pulled out to a 7-0 lead in the fifth inning.

Harvey got off to a bit of a slow start. His fastball was sitting 93-94 in the first inning, which has happened at other times this year but has not been the norm. But his stuff looked just fine through the rest of his outing, and he struck out six, walked none, and needed just 88 pitches to complete his seven innings of work. When he was taken out of the game, it seemed like a reasonable decision. The Marlins’ odds of coming back were incredibly low, and Harvey could get a little extra rest after an easy outing.

That big lead the Mets had got started when Yoesnis Cespedes singled with runners on first and second in the third. That brought Curtis Granderson in with the game’s first run. Lucas Duda followed that up with a monster double, on which Cespedes nearly caught Daniel Murphy as they both scored. And later in the inning, Michael Conforto tacked on another run with a sacrifice fly.

In the fifth, with Murphy and Duda on base, Juan Uribe destroyed the baseball and responded with a strong bat flip as Marlins starter David Phelps threw his arms in the air.

Lucas Duda added one more run on a sac fly in the ninth before things nearly spiraled out of control in the bottom of the inning. Newly-acquired Eric O’Flaherty had come in to replace Bobby Parnell with runners on second and third and two outs in the eighth inning, and he retired Dee Gordon to end that inning. But he remained in the game to start the ninth, and he quickly went through a sequence of: single, strikeout, double, infield single, single. That resulted in two runs for the Marlins and ended O’Flaherty’s outing.

Hansel Robles took over and struck out the first batter he faced, but he then walked the bases loaded and served up a three-run double. That was enough for Terry Collins, who turned to Jeurys Familia. He gave up a single that scored the Marlins’ sixth run before giving up an infield single that put runners on the corners for Christian Yelich. But Yelich grounded out to first, and the game mercifully came to an end.

Shortly after that, the Nationals lost to the Diamondbacks, which gave the Mets a two-game lead in the National League East. The Mets are off today, but the Nationals play Arizona once more this afternoon. The Mets begin a three-game series tomorrow night in Tampa with Jacob deGrom on the mound.

SB Nation GameThreads

* Amazin' Avenue GameThread
* Fish Stripes GameThread

Win Probability Added

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Big winners: Matt Harvey, +18.6% WPA, Lucas Duda, +16.3% WPA, Daniel Murphy, +10.7% WPA
Big losers: none
Teh aw3s0mest play: Lucas Duda’s two-run double in the third, +13.9% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Derek Dietrich’s single that put runners on the corners with two outs in the ninth, -4.6% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +18.9% WPA
Total batter WPA: +31.1% WPA
GWRBI!: Juan Uribe