Mets power reaches new heights in latest Marlins destruction
The forecasted rain never arrived at Citi Field on Wednesday, but there was plenty of thunder.
Boom, boom, boom, boom. That was the Mets pounding the Marlins pitching staff into submission with the long ball for a four-game sweep.
A team that began the day second among NL clubs in homers since the All-Star break added another four in rolling to a 7-2 victory. The win was the Mets’ sixth straight and 13th in 14 games, completing a soft stretch of schedule. Upcoming is three games against the Nationals, who entered the day leading the NL wild card race.
Michael Conforto blasted two homers, including No. 100 in his career, with Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil also going deep to give Steven Matz and the bullpen plenty of support.
The Mets (59-56) hit 10 homers in the four games against Miami, giving them 44 in the second half. Only the Dodgers (46) had more among NL clubs as Wednesday’s play began.
McNeil and Conforto iced this one with homers in the seventh inning that gave the Mets a five-run cushion.
Matz (7-7) rebounded from an ugly performance against the Pirates. Overall, the lefty allowed two earned runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts and two walks over 6 2/3 innings. Justin Wilson entered in the seventh with the tying run at the plate and escaped the jam before Jeurys Familia and Luis Avilan each pitched a scoreless inning.
Brian Anderson’s solo homer in the sixth had sliced the Mets’ lead to 4-2. The blast was only the second allowed by Matz in his past eight starts.
Conforto’s two-run homer with two outs in the third extended the Mets’ lead to 4-1. Matz singled leading off the inning before Conforto jumped on a first-pitch curveball from Jordan Yamamoto and lofted it over the right-field fence for his 100th career homer.
The Marlins scored once against Matz in the second on Lewis Brinson’s RBI single, but poor base-running killed the rally. First, Brinson was caught between first and second on his single and tagged out. Starlin Castro added to the storm by getting thrown out at the plate attempting to advance from third on Harold Ramirez’s grounder to Todd Frazier.
Alonso hammered a changeup for a two-out, two-run homer in the first inning. Conforto walked before Alonso hit homer No. 37, moving him into 10th place on the Mets’ single-season list. Todd Hundley and Carlos Beltran share the franchise record with 41 homers in a season.
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