Nine-hole hitter Nick Fortes, who was batting just .127 entering the game, slugged a three-run home run to lead the Miami Marlins to an 8-0 win over the visiting New York Mets on Friday night.
Fortes went 3-for-3 with three runs, three RBIs and one walk. He has also been the catcher for the past three games as Miami’s pitching staff has caught fire.
The Marlins, who blanked the Detroit Tigers in their two previous games, extended their scoreless streak to 28 consecutive innings — three short of the franchise record set in 2004.
Jesus Luzardo (1-3) pitched six scoreless innings on Friday to notch his first win since Sept. 17, 2023. He allowed five hits and no walks, striking out seven.
Mets rookie Christian Scott (0-2), in his third MLB game, lasted just four innings, allowing seven hits, one walk and four runs. His ERA rose from 2.84 to 4.32.
Miami opened the scoring with a four-run second inning. Jesus Sanchez and Nick Gordon started the rally with singles. Sanchez scored on Otto Lopez’s sacrifice fly.
Then, after Vidal Brujan hit a single, Fortes connected on a hanging slider, hitting it 396 feet to left-center for his second homer of the season.
Scott worked out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the fourth. After an error, a single and a walk, Scott picked up a strikeout, a flyout and a fielder’s choice grounder.
Luzardo retired 11 straight batters from the end of the first inning until the fifth, when the Mets put runners on the corners with one out on singles by Harrison Bader and Jeff McNeil. But Luzardo struck out the next two batters to escape trouble.
Miami extended its lead to 6-0 in the sixth. Brujan walked, took third on Fortes’ single to right and scored on reliever Josh Walker’s wild pitch. Fortes scored on Bryan De La Cruz’s sacrifice fly.
The Marlins added two more runs in the eighth as Josh Bell (fielder’s choice) and Jake Burger (single) picked up RBIs.
Anthony Bender, Burch Smith and Anthony Maldonado each threw an inning of relief to complete Miami’s shutout.
–Field Level Media
