MIAMI _ Based on the astonishing casualty rate for Mets pitchers on this road trip, the bar wasn't set very high Wednesday night for Steven Matz at Marlins Park.
Provide a half-dozen quality innings. Walk off the mound under his own power.
Sounds simple enough. But anyone wearing a Mets' uniform deserves to be counted on the endangered species list. One minute they're here, the next they're gone.
Fortunately, Matz stuck around for seven scoreless innings in helping to deliver Wednesday night's 8-0 victory over the Marlins, with Asdrubal Cabrera and Curtis Granderson supplying a pair of home runs for the Mets' fourth win in five games.
Matz, as one of seven starters to spend time on the DL this season, missed the first eight weeks due to elbow inflammation. But now the Mets are counting on him to be a pillar of the damaged rotation, and Matz's 110-pitch effort, which included six hits _ all singles _ trimmed his ERA to 2.67 in four starts. He walked one and struck out four.
Cabrera, who publicly lobbied to be traded last Friday, had two more hits and is 10-for-21 with a home run, a double and four walks since he asked out. Granderson, getting an extended run in the leadoff spot with Michael Conforto (bruised hand) still hurting, drilled his fifth homer in seven games and is 12-for-31 (.387) on the road trip.
A few hours before Wednesday's game, Robert Gsellman was placed on the disabled list with a left hamstring strain. Zack Wheeler (biceps tendinitis) was sidelined a week earlier. Still, assistant GM John Ricco issued a pregame vote of confidence to the team's training staff, with Matz _ saddled with his own long injury history _ about to take the mound.
"Sometimes you do run into a string of bad luck," Ricco said. "But we're constantly evaluating and trying to get better."
With Matz, however, it appears his luck is turning. His last time out, June 22 at Dodger Stadium, Matz allowed only three hits over his six innings, but two were home runs in the Mets' 6-3 loss. On Wednesday, however, Matz again looked comfortable at Marlins Park (1.59 ERA in two previous starts) and the Mets staked him to a quick 3-0 lead in the first inning that they steadily added to.
From there, Matz easily worked around the few nicks the Marlins could muster. Only two runners reached second base, and in the third inning, Matz got Giancarlo Stanton to bounce into a double play to end that scoring threat, then retired 11 of 15 before calling it a night after the seventh.
As for Cabrera, he rocked the Mets' already sinking ship last Friday in San Francisco, where he showed up for work, fresh off the disabled list, and told the assembled media before that night's game he wanted to be traded. The Mets were moving him to second base, effective immediately. And Cabrera, apparently concerned with his future earning potential, was not going to be a good soldier this time.
But after Sandy Alderson publicly dismissed Cabrera's pleas to have his $8.5-million option picked up, a funny thing happened. Cabrera has never looked better this season. Maybe it's the chip on his shoulder. Or perhaps a desire to play himself off the Mets by upping his market value. Either way, Cabrera continued his exit campaign Wednesday night with two more hits, including a long two-run homer in the first inning, his seventh.
And for all his protests about sliding over from shortstop, Cabrera has been great at second base, a position he's not all that unfamiliar with, having logged 213 games there. On the list of the Mets' potential trade chips, Cabrera is a few rungs below Jay Bruce, Curtis Granderson, Addison Reed and probably Jerry Blevins. But who knows what interest might be drummed up if Cabrera stays productive, and possibly could be packaged with another piece. At the moment, it's too early to gauge, as Ricco expressed before Wednesday's game.
"We've put some feelers out for a lot of players," Ricco said. "It's that time of year. It's fair to say everything right now has been preliminary."
