[caption id="attachment_395" align="aligncenter" width="512" caption="Met killer, Gabby Sanchez (15) celebrates his first of two homeruns that ended the Mets hopes in their Saturday night contest."]
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Pinch-hitter Lucas Duda and Jose Reyes hit long back-to-back homeruns in the ninth, but their brief display of power was not enough to climb out of a five run deficit, as the Mets lost 8-5 at Florida last night.
Chris Capuano toed the rubber for the second game of this series, and he looked brilliant holding a two-run lead through the first five frames. In that span, he yielded no runs on two hits and struck out five Marlins.
But it all fell apart for the left-hander just six pitches into his sixth inning. Emilio Bonifacio led off with a swinging bunt single. Capuano distracted by the Reyes-like speed threat, hung a pitch that Omar Infante hit to the deepest part of the right-center field gap for an RBI triple. Capuano, rattled about the imminent threat to his lead, hung his sixth pitch to Met killer Gabby Sanchez who smashed his first of two two-run homeruns. Three batters later, Logan Morrison pushed the Marlins lead to 4-2 with a solo homerun to right field.
After Capuano was pulled for a pinch-hitter in the top of the seventh, Terry Collins entrusted the bullpen to keep the game reachable, and he had every reason to believe that they would perform because of their great efforts of late. In the month of July, the Mets ‘pen as a unit has posted the second-best ERA (1.90) in the majors.
But Collins called on the wrong arms. D.J. Carrasco and Ryota Igarashi combined to give up four earned runs on five-hits in their two innings of work. Although Carrasco struck out three, he yielded three runs, including Sanchez’s second two-run homerun, between his second and third strikeouts in the seventh inning.
By the time the Mets last opportunity came in the ninth, their five run hole was just too big to climb out of. Marlins manager Jack Mckeon called on closer Leo Nuñez to slam the door shut, but he made it interesting. He allowed the aforementioned Mets homeruns on back-to-back pitches, but stayed collected and retired Justin Turner, Carlos Beltran, and David Wright without much trouble to end the game.
With the loss (Capuano’s 10th of the year), the Mets stand at 50 defeats through their first 100 games. The Braves were dismantled in Cincinnati, so the Mets do not lose ground in the wild card, but they must be playing with a sense of urgency. These losses right before the trade deadline put them in an impossible position, especially considering all the trade rumors about Beltran.
Mets Notes:
The Newark Star-Ledger reports that Johan Santana might appear in a minor-league game next week, if Santana has a good bullpen session before the Mets-Marlins finale. Santana has missed the entire season after his shoulder surgery.