NEW YORK _ Home runs are, in the grand scheme of a baseball game, a rare occurrence, an outcome that requires any number of variables to align perfectly, the round bat and the round ball colliding just right so the latter flies some 350 feet over a wall.
Sometimes, though, home runs seem a little more predictable.
In the first inning of the Miami Marlins' 7-0, one-hitter win over the New York Mets on Sunday, Giancarlo Stanton stepped to the plate with two on and one out. On the mound was the Mets' emergency starter, Adam Wilk, who hadn't pitched in the majors since 2015 and hadn't started in the majors since 2012 but was called up from the minors to take the place of a suspended Matt Harvey.
Wilk, a career journeyman, gave Stanton, perhaps the best pure power hitter in baseball, a fastball down and in. Stanton crushed it off the front of the second deck in left field for a three-run Miami lead.
Two innings later, Wilk again went down and in to Stanton _ this time with a curveball _ and Stanton again went deep to left, this time faster and farther off the windows of the restaurant in left.
Stanton is up to 20 homers at Citi Field, the most of any visiting player at the ballpark, and six multi-homer games here. It was also his third multi-homer game of the year.
Stanton's blasts were in support of Jose Urena, who himself made a spot start for the Marlins in place of righty Edinson Volquez (right thumb blister). Urena pitched six masterful innings, allowing one hit and one walk while striking out a pair.
The Mets didn't get that hit until the sixth. Rene Rivera dunked a single to left to lead off.
The Marlins finished with six runs (five earned) in 3 2/3 innings against Wilk, who got the call when the Mets suspended Harvey on Saturday for three days for a violation of team rules.
Adeiny Hechavarria added a solo shot of his own in the fourth inning, his first home run in 449 plate appearances since last May. Later that frame, Christian Yelich doubled on a rocket to center, took third on an error and scored on a wild pitch.
David Phelps, Nick Wittgren and A.J. Ramos combined for four strikeouts in three scoreless innings to keep the Marlins' second one-hitter of the season intact, salvaging the series after Miami lost the first two.
