Mets travel to Miami with their heads held high and confidence through the roof. The team hit the road fresh off a three-game sweep of the then leading National League East Washington Nationals. Going into tonight’s game, the Mets were tied with the Nationals for first place.
Mets would need a big game from Bartolo Colon who hasn’t won a game since June 12th. The hope was that Colon could brush off his struggles and deliver a gem tonight. He did exactly that. The Marlins, a team that is 10+ games below .500 and with the Mets coming off of its biggest series in years, momentum alone should carry this team to a series victory.
The Mets would also miss Marlins ace, Jose Fernandez, in the series as well since he had pitched the night before.
Anthony Recker seemed to be the prefer catcher of Bartolo Colon, but tonight Travis d’Arnaud was behind the mound as Recker was demoted to AAA. This also means that Kevin Plawecki will serve as the full-time back up catcher.
Mets would strike first in the top of the second: Kelly Johnson reached base on error and Travis d’Arnaud followed that up with a double over the head of Ichiro Suzuki. Travis was 0-7 before that since his return from the disabled list. Michael Conforto, who supposed to be demoted to AAA Las Vegas, was called back up the majors and smacked his first major league homerun, giving the Mets a 3-0 lead. The roster spot opened up after Kirk Nieuwenhuis was sent to the disabled list.
The scoring wouldn’t stop there. In the top of the fifth, Cespedes smacked a 2-run double to right-center scoring Granderson and Murphy. Wilmer Flores would bang an RBI-double and Kelly Johnson got involved with a sacrifice GB.
Mets erupted offensively in the last couple of games, having homered in seven straight games and already had five doubles and one homerun in five innings of play.
Cespedes would get most of the attention during the game as the Mets finally saw the player they thought they were getting in the trade. Cespedes, 3-5, nailed three doubles (one shy of the Mets record), 4 RBI, and 2R.
Mets had virtually all but won the game once they scored twelve runs, but Bartolo Colon had a great outing, which is exactly the kind of game he needed. Bartolo has had a string of bad starts and a well pitched, eight inning start will do him well.
Bartolo’s final stat line: 8 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K.
Sean Gilmartin would come in to close out the game for the Mets. Mets offense would erupt had a grand total of fifteen hits and twelve runs.
The Washington Nationals took on the Arizona Diamondbacks and lost, 6-4. With the Mets 12-1 victory tonight, the New York Mets are in sole possession of first place in the National League East.
Here are your probable’s for tomorrow nights game:
– Jon Niese (5-9, 3.63 ERA) vs. Brad Hand (1-2, 5.12 ERA)
