Mets vs. Marlins recap: deGromination becomes frustration

The Mets lost a horrible game Saturday night in Miami, blowing a 4-2 lead in the eighth inning to the Marlins to lose by a score of 5-4 on Jackie Robinson Day.

Jacob deGrom was the star of the night for the Mets. He made two mistakes in the second inning, allowing back-to-back home runs, but was otherwise lights out for seven innings. He appeared to get stronger as the game went on; his velocity started out in the low 90s, but he was hitting 97 MPH with consistency by the end of the night. The Marlins couldn’t get anything going against him after that second inning, as he only allowed two other singles and one walk over the rest of his start.

He finished with a flurry, striking out the side in his final inning and getting the Marlins to look foolish. It was the third time he struck out the side in the game, and it capped off a night in which he matched his career-high 13 strikeouts. deGrom may have looked off at times in 2016, and did not look great in his last start, but he might’ve looked the best he has since 2015 in this outing.

The Mets got deGrom a lead in the seventh. Down 2-1, Neil Walker got aboard after bunting for a hit. Curtis Granderson followed with an RBI triple to score Walker and tie the game, and Michael Conforto subsequently hit a deep sacrifice fly to score Granderson and give the Mets the lead.

In the top of the eighth inning, Asdrubal Cabrera blasted his second homer of the season, a solo shot to extend the Mets’ lead to 4-2.

But that’s where the good stuff ends. deGrom was pulled after 97 pitches and seven innings. While there was was some thought he could’ve kept going for one more inning with the Mets’ bullpen being overworked, Terry Collins opted to go to his eighth-inning man Fernando Salas instead. Salas, who had worked in seven of the Mets’ 11 games already, came in and got the first two outs in the eighth, but surrendered a walk to Miguel Rojas to bring Christian Yelich up as the tying run. Collins opted to not use his lefty-specialist Jerry Blevins against Yelich, and stayed with Salas.

Yelich blasted a game-tying two-run homer. It was the first two runs Salas has given up all year. Giancarlo Stanton was the next man up, and he knocked a homer out as well to give the Marlins the lead. And within the span of two batters, a 4-2 lead had turned into a 5-4 deficit for the Mets. Blevins was then brought on to get Justin Bour out.

The Mets went down without a whimper in the ninth to seal the deal and end the game. It was the Mets’ second-consecutive heartbreaking loss to the Marlins after being walked-off on Friday night.

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What’s WPA?

Big winners: Curtis Granderson +18.0% WPA, Jacob deGrom +16.5% WPA, Neil Walker +8.5% WPA
Big losers: Fernando Salas -69.1% WPA, Yoenis Cespedes -8.0% WPA, Rene Rivera -8.0% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Curtis Granderson hits an RBI triple in the seventh inning, +30.3% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Christian Yelich hits a two-run home run in the eight inning, -41.3% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -52.4% WPA
Total batter WPA: 2.4% WPA
GWRBI!: Giancarlo Stanton