Mets vs. Marlins recap: Giancarlo Stanton breaks Mets’ winning streak

The Mets’ five-game winning streak came to an end last night, as Jose Reyes returned to the big leagues for the first time since last September and Giancarlo Stanton hit two big home runs, both in terms of length and win probability.

Lefties Steven Matz and Wei-Yin Chen cruised through the first three innings of the game, but the Mets got on the board first with a solo home run by Yoenis Cespedes that hit the signage on the front of the second deck in left field. That lone run kept the Mets ahead until the top of the seventh, when Matz gave up a single to Marcell Ozuna and an even longer home run to Stanton that turned the Marlins’ one-run deficit into a one-run lead.

Matz finished that inning, but Erik Goeddel took over the the eighth. He got two quick outs, both on hard contact, but then hit Christian Yelich with a pitch and allowed a single to Ozuna. He fell behind 3-0 against Stanton, and then the least surprising thing ever happened: Stanton hit another bomb. That made it 5-1 Marlins an drastically reduced the odds of a Mets comeback.

Alejandro De Aza hit a pinch-hit home run in the bottom of that inning, but even though the Mets got a couple other men on base between the eighth and ninth, that was their last run of the night. Sticking with Goeddel, or at least not intentionally walking Stanton once the count got to 3-0, might have cost the Mets the game.

In his return to the Mets and to the major league game in general, Reyes went 0-for-4 and didn’t hit the ball out of the infield.

The series concludes this afternoon with a 1:10 PM rubber match.

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What’s WPA?

Big winners: Yoenis Cespedes, +22.7% WPA
Big losers: Erik Goeddel, -19.6% WPA, Wilmer Flores, -12.5% WPA, Juan Lagares, -11.5% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Yoenis Cespedes’s solo home run in the fourth, +15.2% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Giancarlo Stanton’s go-ahead home run in the seventh, -36.4% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -24.5% WPA
Total batter WPA: -25.5% WPA
GWRBI!: Giancarlo Stanton