NEW YORK _ The Mets lost another player on Saturday night and won another game. When it rains, it pours, even in an 11-3 win over the Marlins that included a 39-minute rain delay.
Asdrubal Cabrera exited the Mets' third straight victory in the third inning after injuring his left thumb diving for a base hit. X-rays were negative, but the Mets' shortstop is scheduled to have an MRI Sunday.
The rain delay followed immediately after, but it didn't stop the Mets from enjoying the fruits of a five-run first inning and some sloppy play by Miami on Noah Syndergaard Hair Hat Night.
The Marlins came into the game having made an NL-low nine errors. They committed three and added a run-scoring passed ball, leading to five unearned runs. The Mets also had two runs score on bases-loaded walks.
It was not pretty, especially with Cabrera going down, but the Mets will take it. They are back to one game under .500 at 14-15 going into Sunday's series finale.
Robert Gsellman (2-2) allowed three runs in five innings. He gave up a solo home run to Giancarlo Stanton in the third and a two-run shot to Marcel Ozuna in the fifth, but otherwise worked around eight hits and a hit batter to qualify for the victory.
The Mets scored five runs in the first against right-hander Odrisamer Despaigne (0-1). The tone for the night was set when first baseman Justin Bour booted Michael Conforto's leadoff grounder for an error.
Cabrera and Jay Bruce (2-for-5, three RBIs) followed with RBI doubles to give the Mets a 2-0 lead. Jose Reyes drove in a run with a single, Kevin Plawecki had a sacrifice fly, and after a walk to Gsellman, Conforto drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 5-0.
With two outs in the first, the Mets had batted around for the third straight game and scored at least five runs in their ninth straight game.
It was 5-1 in the third when Cabrera was injured diving for a ground single by Ozuna. Cabrera was in a great deal of pain and was replaced by Reyes, who moved over from third. Wilmer Flores entered the game to play third, although he didn't see any immediate action because as soon as he ran onto the field the umpires halted play because of rain.
Mets general manager Sandy Alderson was being interviewed in the PIX11 booth when Cabrera went down. Alderson was asked if he would consider calling up 21-year-old shortstop prospect Amed Rosario from Triple-A Las Vegas for his first bite at the big-league apple if Cabrera had to go on the disabled list.
"If we have a need at this point in the season, would we consider it? Yes," Alderson said. "I've said before that if the player's ready and we have a need, we'll certainly consider it."
Rosario entered Saturday's action batting .381 with one home run and 15 RBIs for Triple-A Las Vegas.
The rain, rain went away and the game resumed. The Mets had a game rained out in Atlanta on Thursday when they were leading 3-1 in the fourth inning. Since it was not official, everything that happened was wiped out, including Bruce's tie-breaking two-run homer in the fourth. That game will be made up from the beginning at a later date.
That bitter fate did not befall the Mets this time as they poured it on after the Marlins closed to within 5-3 in the fifth on Ozuna's homer.
The Mets scored three in the fifth (and batted around again) and three in the seventh to turn the game into a rout. T.J. Rivera's RBI single highlighted the fifth and Bruce's two-run double closed out the scoring in the seventh.
