The Miami Marlins won a shootout of strange proportions against the New York Mets, thanks in part to a Giancarlo Stanton homer and seven Mets errors. Henderson Alvarez left the game early with a left oblique injury.
The Miami Marlins and New York Mets ran the gamut of emotions in this Labor Day contest and opening game of their three-game series. The Fish started off on a high note, as Zack Wheeler threw a hanging curve to Giancarlo Stanton that led to his 34th home run of the season and a splash-down at the Clevelander. That gave Miami a 1-0 lead early, and the team added on in the second inning, as Marcell Ozuna tripled home a run with no one out to give the Fish a 2-0 lead.
But amid that, there were concerns about starter Henderson Alvarez. Alvarez suffered a difficult third inning, complete with multiple baserunners and hits and an unfortunate ugly throw by center fielder Marcell Ozuna on a David Wright single. Ozuna airmailed the throw in an attempt to switch his target from home to third base on the fly; as a result, he tossed it into the Marlins' dugout and allowed the single to clear the bases and put Wright on second. That gave the Mets a 4-2 lead.
The Marlins came fighting back, however. Against the Marlins killer Wheeler, the Fish roared back in the fifth to take the lead. Donovan Solano reached on an error and, with two outs, the Fish pulled off a series of consecutive hits. Casey McGehee doubled home Solano, then Garrett Jones singled and scored him. Ozuna topped it off with a base hit to make it 5-4 Miami.
But the Mets came right back. Dilson Herrera added onto his spectacular game with an RBI triple that brought home two runs. He had already given the Mets their first run of the game with his first career home run in the majors in the third inning.
With the Mets ahead, it was looking grim into the late innings. But after the Fish tied it up in the seventh off a Christian Yelich single, the cavalry arrived in full in the eighth. Jarrod Saltalamacchia led things off with a double off the glove of the left fielder. Adeiny Hechavarria bunted him over, but the bunt was placed perfectly and Jeurys Familia threw it low to first and let him reach. One bouncer of a pitch later and Saltalamacchia came home to score for Miami to take the lead. A couple of batters later, with Yelich on at first after an intentional walk, Donovan Solano put on the safety squeeze and forced another error out of Familia. Casey McGehee topped things off with a bases-loaded walk to cap a 9-6 win, with Steve Cishek closing out a perfect ninth.
Source: FanGraphs
Attendance: 23,090
Hero of the Game: Casey McGehee (+0.221 WPA)
Goat of the Game: Henderson Alvarez (-0.410 WPA)
Play of the Game: Dilson Herrera tripled in the sixth inning. Travis D'Arnaud and Matt den Dekker scored. (-0.367 WPA)