The New York Mets hit two early homers off of Nathan Eovaldi, but he recovered to strike out a career-best 10 batters. The Miami Marlins took advantage of the Mets' bullpen in their late comeback, culminating in a Casey McGehee walk-off hit.
The Miami Marlins were put in a bad situation early in the game, as Nathan Eovaldi opened up the first inning against the New York Mets poorly. Daniel Murphy and Curtis Granderson hit homers in the first inning to give the Mets an early 2-0 lead, and the Mets tacked on another run in the fourth inning to give them a 3-0 lead.
But the Marlins, led by the top of the order, pulled another comeback out of nowhere.
Eovaldi did his part for most of the game by staying on top of his game. He found the strike zone consistently, recording 17 balls versus 10 called strikes on his 96.7 mph fastball and only walking one batter all night. Meanwhile, the strike-zone pounding approach yielded a career-best 10 strikeouts for Eovaldi, who looked dialed in throughout the night beyond the first. He finished the night with seven innings pitched and a career night, but on line to take the loss when he left the game.
But the Marlins made sure that Eovaldi did not take the loss. After struggling to advance runners beyond first or second base throughout the game, the Fish started the eighth with back-to-back walks from the top of the lineup. After Christian Yelich and Ed Lucas walked, Giancarlo Stanton had a pitch-perfect patient plate appearance versus reliever Daisuke Matsuzaka, yielding the hardest hit line drive to ever come close to Matsuzaka's dome. After the pitcher narrowly escaped a gruesome injury, the Marlins picked up their first run. Casey McGehee followed up with a hard-hit single that went through the legs and off the foot of shortstop Omar Quintanilla. Jarrod Saltalamacchia added a double to tie the game, but Kyle Farnsworth went on to shut down Miami with the bases loaded and prevent the winning run.
The Fish came back to the top of the lineup in the ninth. Yelich got aboard again, this time with a single. He was moved to second on a sacrifice bunt, and Mets manager Terry Collins intentionally walked Giancarlo Stanton with first base open. McGehee, however, made him pay with a hard hit grounder that ricocheted off of reliever Gonzalez Germen and caromed into the gap between the first and second basemen. Yelich came around to score and the Marlins walked off with a win for the second day in a row.
Source: FanGraphs
Attendance: 20,606
Hero of the Game: Casey McGehee (0.427 WPA)
Goat of the Game:Adeiny Hechavarria (-0.125 WPA)
Play of the Game: Jarrod Saltalamacchia doubled to right field. Giancarlo Stanton scored. Casey McGehee advanced to third base. (+0.343 WPA)