Henderson Alvarez and the Miami Marlins were slammed by the New York Mets 7-1 in a game full of two-run home runs and ugly play.
The Miami Marlins came into this game hoping to pull a little closer to .500 and trying to close the widening gap between them and the division lead. They brought their best starter, Henderson Alvarez. to face off against the impressive Zack Wheeler.
The results were not pretty.
Alvarez took a rare beating, as he gave up six runs in five innings with three strikeouts and no walks allowed. Most importantly, he gave up two critical home runs. The one to Lucas Duda was blasted to deep right field and had no doubt the second it left the bat. Duda launched a two-run shot with the New York Mets already up 2-0, and the homer went up into the upper deck in the spacious Citi Field. Later in the game, Alvarez gave up another bomb, this time a two-run homer to David Wright, that left Miami drowning in a 6-1 deficit.
The Fish could have been behind less, but Miami tossed away early chances at runs. With the game still 4-0, Donovan Solano singled and Casey McGehee doubled down the left field line. With one out, third base coach Brett Butler sent Solano home, which is an unorthodox move when your team is down four runs and baserunners are almost as good as runs scored. Solano was gunned down by Ruben Tejada. One batter later, Garrett Jones bunted against the shift to try and bring McGehee home, but in a close play at first base, he was ruled out. There appeared to be questionable evidence of an incorrect call, but Miami deemed it not important enough to challenge.
It is not as though those plays were what cost Miami the game. The Fish fell behind by a significant amount, and none of its hitter could do much against Wheeler, who struck out six in 6 2/3 innings and picked up another win over the Marlins.
Source: FanGraphs
Attendance: 25,914
Hero of the Game: No one
Goat of the Game: Henderson Alvarez (-0.319 WPA)
Play of the Game: Lucas Duda homered to right field. David Wright scored. (-0.120 WPA)