Miami, FL (SportsNetwork.com) – Giancarlo Stanton and Ichiro Suzuki each
homered and drove in three runs to keep the Miami Marlins rolling with a 7-3
victory over the New York Mets that decided a three-game series.
Stanton and Adeiny Hechavarria both went 2-for-4 with a run scored, while Dee
Gordon added two more to his MLB-leading hit total and drove in one run in the
Marlins’ seventh win in their last eight.
Miami did lose starting pitcher Mat Latos to a strained left hamstring in the
fifth inning, but Sam Dyson (1-0) stepped in to toss two spotless frames and
earn the win.
Bartolo Colon (4-1) suffered his first loss of the season for New York,
permitting all four Marlins runs on nine hits over 6 2/3 innings.
Michael Cuddyer paced the Mets at the plate by going 2-for-4 with a two-run
homer.
The Marlins were down 3-2 when Latos pulled up lame as he reached first base
while leading off the bottom of the fifth with a single, a hit that took the
right-hander off the hook for a possible loss thanks to a clutch two-out at-
bat from Stanton.
Gordon followed Latos’ hit with a single but Colon got Martin Prado to bounce
into a double play. The Mets starter then put Stanton in an 0-2 hole before
the slugger shot a grounder in the hole and beat Daniel Murphy’s throw from
second to plate pinch-runner Donovan Solano and tie the game at 3-3.
The Mets didn’t have a baserunner during Dyson’s two innings of work, and
Hechavarria began the bottom of the seventh with a double prior to being
pushed to third on a sac bunt. Gordon then lofted a fly to right plenty deep
enough to bring home the go-ahead run.
Suzuki gave Miami some breathing room by belting his first homer as a Marlin,
a line-drive shot off Alex Torres with two on in the eighth.
Both starting pitchers served up two-run homers in the opening inning. Cuddyer
followed Lucas Duda’s single by crushing a flat slider from Latos over the
well in left center to briefly put the Mets ahead, as Stanton answered with a
blast well into the left-field seats with Prado aboard in Miami’s half of the
frame.
Curtis Granderson sent New York back in front by beginning the third with a
double and crossing the plate via consecutive groundouts by Juan Lagares and
Duda.
Latos ended with a final line of three runs allowed on five hits over five
innings.
Game Notes
Gordon is batting .583 (14-of-24) during a six-game hitting streak and now has
38 hits this season, two shy of a Marlins’ record for April set by Mike Lowell
in 2002 … Stanton has six homers and 14 RBI over his past 13 games … Colon
was attempting to join Roger Clemens (2004) as the only pitchers past 40 years
of age to win their first five starts of a season … Mets reliever Jack
Leathersich made his MLB debut by recording the final out of the eighth.
