The fashion in which the New York Mets finally won a game Wednesday night probably is not sustainable.
All the Mets can do is hope the win provides the spark they desperately need to turn around a potentially lost season.
The Mets will look to build off Wednesday’s win when they host the Miami Marlins on Friday night in the opener of a three-game series between the National League East’s bottom two teams.
Freddy Peralta (3-4, 3.52 ERA) is slated to start for the Mets against fellow right-hander Max Meyer (5-0, 2.52).
Both teams were off Thursday after playing low-scoring affairs Wednesday night. The host Mets avoided being swept by the Cincinnati Reds with a 4-2 victory in the finale of a three-game series. The visiting Marlins fell to the Toronto Blue Jays 2-1 in the rubber game of a three-game set.
The win snapped a five-game losing streak for the Mets, who were outscored 24-6 during the skid. New York has gone 2-7 in its last nine games, a span in which it has been outscored 44-22.
Only the San Francisco Giants and Colorado Rockies have worse records in the NL than the Mets, who haven’t been over .500 since April 9 — the day they suffered the second loss in a 12-game losing streak, the longest for the franchise since 2002.
Not surprisingly, Wednesday’s much-needed win did not come easy for the Mets, whose six pitchers combined to allow eight hits and issue nine walks. The Reds, who were never retired in order in any inning, stranded 17 baserunners — including three in the ninth, when closer Devin Williams walked three and struck out three.
Williams threw 34 pitches, 12 more than his previous season-high and his most in an outing since throwing 34 pitches last Sept. 3.
“Obviously, he got in trouble, but he was able to make pitches and execute,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “I’m glad he was able to get the job done. Good team win there.”
The loss to the Blue Jays ended a stretch of 16 games in as many days for the Marlins, who went 7-9 in that span while winning just one series — a three-game sweep of the Mets last weekend in Miami.
The Marlins, who previously lost series to the Minnesota Twins, Tampa Bay Rays and Atlanta Braves, routed the Blue Jays 8-2 in Monday’s series opener but were limited to five hits in an 8-1 loss Tuesday. Miami had 11 hits Wednesday, but went 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight runners.
The Marlins were limited to four runs or fewer 12 times in the last 16 games.
“We had a little spurt there where we feel like we got ourselves back into a better place,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. “We clawed back a little bit, but we’re going to need to just go and try to stack some series together to get ourselves back into a better position.”
Peralta and Meyer will oppose each other for the second time in seven days.
Meyer earned the win on Saturday, when he allowed one hit over seven scoreless innings in the Marlins’ 4-1 victory. Peralta took the loss after giving up four runs over a season-high seven innings.
Peralta is 3-5 with a 4.18 ERA in 12 career games (nine starts) against the Marlins. Meyer is 2-1 with a 2.08 ERA in three starts against the Mets.
–Field Level Media
