MIAMI — Using their most band-aid lineup so far this season, overflowing with minor league transplants and backups to the backups, the scrappy Mets somehow, some way, pulled out a win in 12 innings.
Dominic Smith, the free runner on second base in extras, advanced on Jake Hager’s first MLB hit in the top of the 12th. Khalil Lee pinch-hit for the pitcher and broke his 0-for-8 start in the majors with an RBI double to drive in Smith and finally break the stalemate with his first career hit. Outfielder Johneshwy Fargas padded the lead with a bold inside-the-park home run attempt on a line drive to right field. Fargas was out at the plate, but he was fired up anyway about his two-run triple.
And that’s how the Mets beat the Marlins, 6-5, in extra innings on Friday night in Miami. Three rookies in Hager, Lee and Fargas came up clutch as the young heroes against a division foe while injured stars Pete Alonso and Michael Conforto cheered them on hard from the bench.
The Mets relief corps was outstanding on Friday night, with scoreless innings from Trevor May, Jeurys Familia, Edwin Diaz and Drew Smith. Diaz entered the 10th inning with one intention: keep the game tied. With the free runner on second base, the Mets closer struck out two in a perfect ninth, including a 100-mph whiff to Adam Duvall, to send the game to the 11th inning.
Marcus Stroman was sturdy, calm and moving along his ninth start of the year. He allowed a single in every inning until the fifth, when he struck out the side and seemed to finally fall into a rhythm. Even in the early innings, when he’d allowed just one run in the second on a sacrifice fly, he wasn’t so shaken up or unhinged that he allowed several runners to cross home plate.
Overall, Stroman limited the damage and it was a solid night that included his asset in induced ground balls. Ultimately, he matched his season high of eight strikeouts.
That’s why it was strange to see Luis Rojas walk out to the mound to take Stroman out of the game in the seventh. Stroman had walked his leadoff batter, Brian Anderson, which prompted Rojas to make the call to the bullpen. Even though Stroman had demonstrated he could escape innings unscathed on Friday night, he appeared to be on a short leash. He left his start at 89 pitches.
Miguel Castro, pitching his fourth outing in seven games in an overworked Mets bullpen, took the ball from Stroman. Five pitches later, he gave up a two-run home run to the first batter he faced. Garrett Cooper tied the game with his no-doubt dinger to left field and the Mets’ already minimal offense on the night was stamped out.
May didn’t have his best stuff — making his 10th relief appearance of the month — against the Marlins but he still managed to keep them off the board. Six Miami batters came to the plate in the eighth inning of a tied game and loaded the bases. May, on his 32nd pitch of the inning, buzzed a fastball by Cooper, who already had a game-tying home run on Friday, and whiffed him to end the inning with three men stranded. May walked off the mound pumping his fist and screaming in excitement.
Jose Peraza, the Mets’ starting second baseman ever since Jeff McNeil (left hamstring strain) hit the injured list, was hit by a pitch in the top of the fourth inning. Moments after the 95-mph pitch ricocheted off his leg, Peraza was taken out of the game in the bottom of the fourth with the Mets announcing a right calf contusion for the infielder. Wilfredo Tovar replaced Peraza at second base.
The Mets offense, once again rolling out a skeleton lineup with five of their eight regular position players on the IL, were mostly silent at the plate until the 12th-inning thriller. Jonathan Villar and Francisco Lindor came out scorching hot in the first inning, the former walking and stealing a base and the latter driving him in on an RBI double. After Tomas Nido’s RBI double in the fourth, Mets bats went cold. The Marlins pitching staff retired 15 consecutive Mets hitters, stretching from the fifth inning to the ninth.
