Mets 7, Marlins 4

This was billed as a potential pitchers' deul, with Tom Glavine and young Josh Beckett getting the starts. And it lived up to the hype early, as both teams were held scoreless through four innings. But in the fifth, the offenses started to break through.

Derek Lee led off the top of the fifth with a long home run to left off of Glavine, and after Alex Gonzalez got on base with an infield single, Juan Pierre drove him home with a single to put the Marlins up 2-0.

Beckett had baffled Met hitters through the first four, striking out seven and allowing just one hit and one walk. But in the fifth, the Mets began to get some offensive contributions from unlikely sources. It was an unusual lineup with normal third and fourth hitters Cliff Floyd and Mike Piazza getting the day off, replaced by Tsuyoshi Shinjo in left and Vance Wilson behind the plate. Jeromy Burnitz, batting sixth, led off the fifth with a walk. Wilson, batting seventh, flied out before Rey Sanchez amazingly came up with a single to right, putting Burnitz on third. Glavine hit a high chopper to second that scored Burnitz and the Mets were on the board. Leadoff man Roberto Alomar came up and struck out, but the third strike was a wild pitch that normally surehanded catcher Ivan Rodriguez couldn't handle and Alomar was safe at first. Then, in the most shocking development of the inning, Roger Cedeno, who came to the plate with two strikeouts on his record for the day, hit a little blooper over the head of the shortstop into left to score Sanchez to tie the game.

Glavine started off the sixth inning by walking Rodriguez, only to later pick him off. But Mo Vaughn's throw to get Rodriguez at second went into left field and Rodriguez made it safely to third on what should have been the second out of the inning but was instead Vaughn's second error of the game. Gonzalez drove Rodriguez home with a single and the Marlins were on top again.

Beckett retired the Mets in order in the sixth, but was taken out of the game after that, having thrown 107 pitches. All weekend watching these games I've had to listen to otherwise fine color commentator and Met legend Tom Seaver complain about Jeff Torborg not letting his young pitchers pitch enough innings. This, despite Torborg the Burninator's reputation for destroying young arms with excessive usage during their formative years. Aaron over at Aaron's Baseball Blog had a good piece on that very subject a few days back.

However, as if to prove Seaver's point, Vladimir Nunez came in and immediately surrendered a game-tying home run to Vance Wilson. Then Rey Sanchez got on with his second hit of the game. Tom Glavine, who had looked like he would be taken out, unable to get the win, before Wilson's home run, came up to sacrifice. He did so well enough that Nunez couldn't handle it and Glavine was safe at first on the error. Then in a mind-boggling move, after the Marlins brought in lefty Michael Tejera, Roberto Alomar went up to sacrifice. Now I know Alomar has been fairly awful from the right side of the plate, but even so, the man batting behind him is Roger Freaking Cedeno, who's been consistently awful from both sides of the plate. Somehow, some way, this bone-headed move worked out, as Cedeno bounced the ball about fifteen feet down the first base line, getting on with an infield single, scoring Sanchez. The Mets had only seven hits in this game, and Cedeno and Sanchez accounted for four of them. It was a truly unusual day. Cedeno stole second and Ty Wigginton got a walk to load the bases. Then Mo Vaughn, the man with two strikeouts and two errors on the day, came through in the clutch again, as he has often in the past week, singling up the middle to score two runs. Shinjo then grounded into a fielder's choice, scoring Wigginton to put the Mets up 7-3, ensuring Armando Benitez a day off.

Glavine wound up coming out of the game after all, having pitched seven solid innings, giving up three runs on eight hits and three walks with one strikeout. David Weathers came in and retired the Marlins on just eleven pitches in the eighth. Mike Stanton came in in the ninth and gave up a home run to Alex Gonzalez to pull the Marlins within three, but Art Howe resisted the temptation to bring in Benitez and Stanton managed to close out the 7-4 win for the Mets. Glavine got his third win in five starts and the team won two out of three in the series for their second consecutive series victory, putting their record at 8-11, good for last place in the very tight NL East.

Tomorrow the Mets have the day off before the Astros come to town on Tuesday.  ¶ joe | 6:04 PM |