After scoring four runs in the ninth inning to tie the score, the host Miami Marlins defeated the New York Mets 10-9 on Otto Lopez’s walk-off RBI single in the 10th on Saturday.
Trailing 9-5 entering the ninth against two-time All-Star closer Edwin Diaz, the Marlins got an RBI single from Jazz Chisholm Jr. before Josh Bell sent a game-tying three-run homer to center.
Lopez’s game-winning single scored automatic runner Christian Bethancourt to tag Mets reliever Jorge Lopez (1-1) with the loss. Winning pitcher Tanner Scott (3-4) pitched a perfect top of the 10th.
Chisholm went 3-for-5 with three RBIs and three runs. He had a solo homer and a pair of RBI singles.
Bell went 3-for-5 with four RBIs.
The Mets, who changed their lineup after getting blanked 8-0 on Friday, got 15 hits, but it wasn’t enough.
Miami entered the game having pitched 28 consecutive scoreless innings — three short of the franchise record. But the Mets busted that streak in the first inning.
New York’s biggest lineup changes included putting Francisco Lindor in the leadoff spot and having Brandon Nimmo bat third. In his fourth year with the Mets, Lindor hit at the top of the order for just the sixth time. In nine years with the Mets, Nimmo has started in the three-hole just 16 times.
The result for the New York lineup was four singles that drove in six runs in all. The Mets also had a pair of RBI doubles.
The Mets — who have the highest payroll in baseball — are just 8-17 since winning on April 20.
In the first inning, Miami’s Braxton Garrett hit Lindor with a 1-2 sinker. Lindor advanced to second on Pete Alonso’s single before scoring on J.D. Martinez’s single. Mark Vientos added an RBI single to give New York a 2-0 lead.
Miami cut its deficit to 2-1 in the second, as Jesus Sanchez drew a seven-pitch walk before scoring on Nick Gordon’s one-out, opposite-field double that one-hopped the wall in left-center.
The Marlins tied the score 2-2 in the third on Chisholm’s 413-foot homer to right-center. He hit a 97-mph sinker.
New York produced four runs in the fifth inning on two-run singles by Harrison Bader and Jeff McNeil.
Miami cut its deficit to 7-5 with three runs in the seventh on Otto Lopez’s RBI double and run-scoring singles by Chisholm and Bell.
The Mets, though, added RBI doubles by Martinez and Starling Marte in the ninth.
In the bottom of the ninth, the biggest blow was Bell’s 428-foot shot to center with one out. In a non-save situation, Diaz retired only one batter. He has already blown three saves this season and has a 5.50 ERA.
–Field Level Media
