MIAMI _ Yoenis Cespedes staged another prodigious display of his power, slamming a pair of towering home runs. But the slugger's second multi-homer effort in three games was not enough on its own to absolve the New York Mets after 15 innings of agony.
Travis d'Arnaud seized that distinction for himself, with a solo shot in the 16th that gave the Mets a 9-8 victory over the Miami Marlins in their longest game since 2015.
Cespedes' exploits faded as Thursday night blurred into Friday morning, and the line between victory and defeat only got hazier. By the end, the Mets had emptied their bench, and the Marlins resorted to using Adam Conley, who was slated to start Friday night.
It was Conley who served up the deciding shot to d'Arnaud, who finished with a career-high four hits and had four RBIs as the Mets won their fifth straight.
Weary righthander Hansel Robles picked up the victory. He entered in the 15th the last available reliever, saved only for an absolute emergency because he already had pitched three games in a row. He responded with two shutout innings, a strong ending for a bullpen that surely will need a fresh arm on Friday after combining for 11 1/3 innings of scoreless relief.
The night dragged on so long that Jacob deGrom was summoned for pinch-hitting duty in the 15th. He struck out. But the Mets won their longest game since needing 18 innings to beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-1, on July 19, 2015.
Jerry Blevins wriggled out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh. Fernando Salas, who has pitched in seven of the Mets' 10 games, tossed two scoreless innings. Closer Addison Reed added two shutout innings of his own ahead of Josh Smoker, who set a career high with his three scoreless frames.
The Mets rallied from an early deficit, opened a lead, then squandered it. But Michael Conforto's pinch-hit, RBI double in the eighth forced extra innings.
Robert Gsellman got shelled for eight runs and five hits in just 4 2/3 innings, leaving a heavy workload for a bullpen that already has been taxed to start the season.
After an impressive spring training in which he seized a spot in the starting rotation, Gsellman has seen his ERA rise to 9.28 in his first two starts.
Gsellman encountered trouble from the start. He ended the first inning trailing 4-0 after Marcell Ozuna's grand slam, the result of crummy luck and faulty command.
To load the bases, Gsellman issued a pair of walks and Christian Yelich reached on a routine grounder that should have been smothered by T.J. Rivera, who started at third base for the slumping Jose Reyes. Yelich was credited with a hit.
Up came Ozuna, whose slam measured a scorching 110 mph off the barrel of his bat.
But the Mets answered with four runs in the second, a rally that was kept alive when Jay Bruce bunted against the shift. The biggest hit came from d'Arnaud, who lined a bases-loaded triple down the rightfield line. He scored the tying run on Curtis Granderson's single.
The lineup was just getting started. For the ninth straight game, the Mets hit a home run. The first outburst came in the third, when Cespedes and Wilmer Flores went back-to-back for a 6-4 lead.
Cespedes struck again in the fifth, launching his second homer of the game, this one a solo shot for a three-run lead.
It wasn't enough.
Gsellman settled into a rhythm after the first inning, retiring the next 10 hitters he faced. That stretch included five strikeouts. It was perhaps the first time this season that he looked like the promising fireballer who bailed out an injured rotation in the second half of last season.
That progress unraveled in the fifth, when Gsellman let the three-run lead slip away. Terry Collins would have been justified in pulling the righthander, especially as his command waned.
With the bases loaded, Gsellman walked Yelich to force in a run. Yet Collins stuck with him as he faced Giancarlo Stanton, who lifted a sacrifice fly to make it 7-6.
With the game tense, Collins turned to lefty Josh Edgin, who surrendered a double to Justin Bour that tied it at 7. Two batters later, Derek Dietrich pushed the Marlins ahead 8-7 with a run-scoring single to right. It would have been worse had Bruce not cut down Bour trying to score.
The Mets thought they had it tied in the seventh. Cespedes struck out but reached on a wild pitch. With two outs, Bruce singled to left, and Cespedes busted home trying to score from second. He apparently scored standing up, but the call was overturned when replay showed that catcher A.J. Ellis grazed Cespedes before he touched the plate.
However, the Mets tied it one inning later, making good on a two-out rally.
