Final Score: Marlins 3, Mets 2—You do not, under any circumstances, “gotta Hand it to them”

For six innings, it looked like the Mets were cruising towards a victory. But baseball is a nine inning game, and the Marlins came back and handed the Mets another demoralizing defeat, as New York fell 3-2 at loanDepot Park.

For the first two-thirds of this game, Javier Báez and Marcus Stroman were the story. At the plate, Báez hit a ground rule double in the first, got to third on a wild pitch, and scored on another wild pitch as Michael Conforto walked. In the third, he hit a titanic blast to dead center to give the Mets a two-run lead. In the fifth, he walked and stole two bases, though he was stranded at third.

On the mound, Stroman was masterful, going 6.1 innings, allowing one earned run on four hits with no walks and seven strikeouts to lower his ERA to 2.87. He allowed a run in the sixth and exited with one out in the seventh with his club ahead by one. Luis Rojas called upon Brad Hand, who did not have command of his breaking pitch in this one. In the end, it was an errant throw on a ground ball that got past Pete Alonso and allowed Miami to plate the tying run in the seventh.

The Marlins went ahead for good on a mammoth Jazz Chisholm homer in the eighth inning off Jeurys Familia. The Mets were retired in order in the ninth to suffer their second straight loss, and their seventh in ten games in Miami in 2021.

Full recap to follow.

GameThread Roll Call

Nice job by MetsFan4Decades; her effort in the GameThread embiggens us all.

1. MetsFan4Decades: 103
2. Syndergaard’s Lunch: 36
3. Great Seaver’s Ghost: 35
4. AnneInFlushing: 34
5. doctor prancer: 34
6. The Glider: 24
7. LouMonte7: 19
8. deegie: 17
9. painiac: 15
10. BlockNTackle: 14