Frank Francisco struggled for the second straight out and twice in the series against the Marlins
It was a pretty ho-hum afternoon in Miami, Florida as the Mets and Marlins played into the ninth inning tied at two. The Mets bullpen imploded today with the exception of Jon Rauch who pitched the eighth inning, meanwhile DJ Carrasco, Tim Byrdak and Bobby Parnell didn’t pitch in the game.
Prior to the game the pitching matchup on paper was well in favor of the Marlins who were riding on Carlos Zambrano who entered with 16 straight shutout innings, he continued that stretch into the first as he set down the Mets 1-2-3.
Counterpart Jon Niese worked around a leadoff walk to former Met Jose Reyes to match Zambrano with a zero in the first.
The Mets got their first hit of the game as catcher Rob Johnson singled with one out in the third and was bunted over to second, but the offense was unable to bring him around. New York broke through in the fourth inning after Kirk Nieuwenhuis and David Wright started things off with back-to-back singles.
The two runners moved up on a passed ball by John Buck, which allowed Nieuwenhuis to score on a groundout by Lucas Duda. The next batter was Daniel Murphy who went to the opposite field with a single to bring home Wright and put the Mets up 2-0.
Niese continued to roll on the mound scattering five hits through six innings of work before being pinch hit for by Ike Davis in the top of the sixth. Ramon Ramirez came on next and allowed a triple to Emilio Bonifacio followed by recent Met killer John Buck launching a game-tying two run home run over the left centerfield fence. Ramirez allowed a single to Reyes and did a brilliant job holding him on base for as long as he could and eventually Hanley Ramirez to strike out.
Edward Mujica relieved Zambrano and got the Mets out in the eights, while Rauch did the same in the bottom of the eighth inning. In the top of the ninth Marlins’ closer Heath Bell came on looking to keep the game tied and got Duda out for the first of the inning. Murphy doubled and Ronny Cedeno walked, Jordany Valdespin grounded out to move them up before Mike Baxter was intentionally walked to load the bases.
Justin Turner was up next to face Bell and was looking for another epic at-bat to the one he had a few weeks ago at Citi Field. This time it only took Turner seven pitches to lace a double to the opposite field and put the Mets up 4-2.
Then came Frank Francisco looking for the save and allowed a leadoff triple to Bonifacio followed by a walk to put runners at the corners with no one down. Pinch hitter Greg Dobbs came up and did what he did two nights earlier and blooped a single into right center to bring home Bonifacio and trim the deficit to one. Terry Collins brought on Manny Acosta to replace Francisco who had lost his composure on the mound and berated the umpire during his exit.
Acosta allowed a sacrifice fly to Reyes to tie the game at four before getting Omar Infante to pop up for the second out. Austin Kearns was hit by a pitch to load the bases and bring up the artist formerly known as Mike Stanton. First pitch fastball was sent well into the deepest part of the park near the hideous home run structure for the walk-off game-winning grand slam.
Game Ball: Jon Niese pitched six shutout innings while leaving with a 2-0 lead, Jon Rauch and Justin Turner get a piece of the pie too for their contributions.
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