Canó, Alonso, and the bullpen send the Mets to victory in Miami

In the truest form of Mets, an 11-4 blowout win over the Marlins still produced irritation and annoyance right until the final out. The first inning of the game ended with bases loaded for the Marlins and the last inning of the game ended just the same. Somewhere in between those escaped jams, the Mets scored 11 runs and took down the formerly-first-place Miami Marlins.

Going all the way back to that first inning, things looked bleak as an increasingly wet Robert Gsellman toed the rubber and found himself on the wrong end of a 1-0 score as Jonathan Villar led off the game with a replay-reviewed single and two batters later, Matt Joyce doubled to bring him around to score. Then, with a mound visit and a line-out in between, Gsellman walked two of the next three batters he faced to load the bases for former Olympic speed skater Eddy Alvarez. On thin ice, Gsellman induced a grounder and skated away from a potential meltdown.

Since equality is a very important aspect of life, it was only fair that the Mets got their own chance to load the bases against the starter, in this case Jordan Yamamoto. So, Michael Conforto walked, Robinson Canó singled, and Pete Alonso singled to bring the National League leader in slugging percentage to the plate: Dominic Smith. That lead over the pack was only widened with Smith’s double plonking down in right field and bringing home Conforto and Canó to give the Mets a 2-1 advantage. Following a weird and flippy adventure to get thrown out at home by Alonso on Wilson Ramos’ grounder, Amed Rosario laced a double that carried and carried to bring home Smith and put two men in scoring position with two outs to play with. Unfortunately, the Marlins pulled Yamamoto and brought Sterling Sharp into the game who promptly got Brandon Nimmo to ground out and Jeff McNeil to scream and swear his way to a strikeout looking, stranding both runners on base.

Prior to Gsellman’s removal two outs into the bottom of the second, things got a bit spicy, much to the annoyance of Keith. Jon Berti was hit by a pitch and was replaced at first by Magneuris Sierra after a double play attempt came up short. Sierra stole second base shortly after, but was erased after being caught in a one-man rundown between second and third on a Villar grounder. One Jesus Aguilar single later, Gsellman was told to hit the bricks and to take his place, the machine known only as Chasen Shreve was called to the mound. Shreve struck out the first batter he faced and would go on to strike out four of the next six batters he faced in his time on the mound. In the meantime, the Mets offense was putting together the runs that gave Shreve his first win in a Mets uniform.

After J.D. Davis led off the inning by getting thwacked with a pitch and two batters later, Robinson Canó hit a laser beam home run over the adjusted wall in center field for his third dinger of the year and the fourth and fifth Mets runs of the night. Two more hits touched down in the top of the third in the form of Pete Alonso’s single and Wilson Ramos’ double, but neither man came around to score as Amed Rosario ultimately grounded out to end the threat and the top half. In the fourth, two men were walked and one more was bonked, but Sharp and the first of the Marlins’ two Josh Smiths on the night kept the Mets off the board in the fourth.

Action picked back up in the fifth inning as Pete Alonso led things off with his first home run of the game and the fourth of his mildly disappointing season. On the flip side, as the kids say, Jonathan Villar celebrated the departure of Chasen Shreve and the arrival of Jeurys Familia with a solo home run of his own to erase Alonso’s run and bring the game to a 6-2 tally.

At the start of the sixth, the first member of the Smiths departed and Morrissey the charming man, Justin Shafer, came in to kick off his night to forget. Brandon Nimmo immediately tripled and was quickly brought home by Jeff McNeil’s sacrifice fly. J.D. Davis walked and Michael Conforto flew out before Robinson Canó and Pete Alonso went back-to-back on both of their second homers of the night and their fourth and fifth homers of the season, respectively. Unlike last time, the deficit remained the same at the inning’s conclusion as Brad Brach worked his way around a trio of singles in the bottom of the sixth.

For the first time in what felt like ages in this nearly four-hour game, the collective power in the arms of the other Josh Smith for the Marlins and Franklyn Kilome for the Mets kept both teams off the board for two straight innings. Of course, there were a few scattered hits, or in Kilome’s case, scattered walks, but both staffs remained strong into the final inning. But, once the ninth inning was upon us, things got wild and wacky.

To start things off, the Marlins sent out Not Pitcher Logan Forsythe to pitch the ninth inning and four batters deep into his time on the mound, the bases were loaded with only one out recorded. Luckily for Forsythe, while he possessed the pitching ability of a position player, Billy Hamilton possessed the hitting ability of a pitcher, so things evened out and a sacrifice fly was all that the speedster was able to accomplish. Andres Gimenez followed with a fly ball of his own and Suddenly A Pitcher Logan Forsythe escaped with a better outing than his team’s starter.

Kilome went back out for the ninth to try and complete his third inning of work and secure a three-inning save for the squad. Of course things weren’t easy as Monte Harrison led the inning off with a double and two batters later, he came home to score on Lewin Diaz’s single. Ryan Lavarnway singled and Eddy Alvarez walked to load the bases. After a visit to the mound, Jon Berti singled to bring home one more run which ultimately was the last for the Marlins as the next two batters flew out to end the 11-4 contest.

Tomorrow, in game two of the four-game set, David Peterson takes the mound against a fellow named TBD at 7:10 in Marlins Park.

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What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Robinson Cano +22% WPA
Big Mets loser: Jeff McNeil -10% WPA
Mets pitchers: +7% WPA
Mets hitters: +43% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Dominic Smith’s second-inning RBI double, +15,8% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Matt Joyce’s first-inning RBI double, -11.6% WPA