A Christian Yelich home run and a strong performance by Tom Koehler could not coax a win for the Fish, as Miami fell 5-4 to the New York Mets.
The Miami Marlins got a solo home run from Christian Yelich as part of a four-run effort in the team's afternoon contest versus the New York Mets. Four runs is plenty for a club that has struggled to score runs this past month, so you might fancy the team having a chance to win today's game. But the Marlins were unable to hold onto early leads thanks in part to the struggles of the team's bullpen.
As impressive as the four runs were for a struggling Fish team, Miami only mustered five hits and five walks all game. Meanwhile, Daisuke Matsuzaka and company whipped up 12 strikeouts from the Fish as well, with ten coming at Dice-K's hands. The hits, however, were well bunched up. Donovan Solano drove in a run after an Adeiny Hechavarria double and a Yelich walk. After the Mets tied it up at two apiece, Miami picked up two runs from consecutive doubles by Marcell Ozuna and Garrett Jones to pick up a 4-2 lead.
It seemed like that might be enough for Tom Koehler, but Koehler actually struggled a little in the game. He struck out four and walked four in hist 6 1/3 innings, but it was the last of the four walks that ended up hurting the most. Before leaving the game in the seventh, he walked Ruben Tejada and made way for Bryan Morris. Morris had yet to allow a home run all season in a Marlins uniform, but he gave up a two-run shot to pinch-hitter Chris Young right when he entered the game.
The bullpen failed the Fish once more in the eighth. Mike Dunn gave up a double to Travis D'Arnaud and the pinch-hitter Eric Campbell, who replaced the lefty Kirk Nieuwenhuis in the lineup, hit the bloop single that drove home the winning run.
Miami will look to avoid the sweep in the final game tomorrow before the All-Star break.
Source: FanGraphs
Attendance: 35,283
Hero of the Game: Garrett Jones (0.117 WPA)
Goat of the Game: Mike Dunn (-0.305 WPA)
Play of the Game:Chris Young homered in the seventh inning. Ruben Tejada scored. (-0.356 WPA)