On a night where the Mets looked lifeless and hapless for nearly all 27 outs, J.D. Martinez ensured that the Marlins would never actually record that 27th out. He came to the rescue in the ninth inning, blasting a one-out, two-run walk-off homer to put the Mets over the Marlins by a score of 3-2.
For the eight innings prior to that, this was shaping up as yet another extremely frustrating Mets-Marlins game. And when you think of frustrating Mets-Marlins games, what do you think of? Certainly some awful walk-offs or bullpen meltdowns in Miami may spring to mind, but one of the defining traits of Mets-Marlins games is, shall we say, less-than-well-known Marlins starters inexplicably shutting the Mets offense down.
Enter Roddery Muñoz. The 24-year-old rookie entered the night with only four starts this year—the first four starts of his major league career—and not a ton of prospect hype. Muñoz, in those four starts, had two strong starts and two clunkers, coming out to a 5.95 ERA entering the night.
Well, we can make a new entry into that list of anonymous Marlins starters to shut the Mets down. Muñoz dominated all night. He took a no-hitter into the sixth inning, and only allowed one walk and a hit by pitch and struck out five. He faced only one batter over the minimum, and had the Mets hitters in knots.
Harrison Bader recorded that first Mets hit with one out in the sixth, and he was the first Met to reach base since the second inning.
On the Mets’ side, Luis Severino also continued his solid season with another six strong innings of his own. He worked around some trouble, most notably a bases-loaded jam in the top of the fourth, which he escaped by getting Tim Anderson to bounce into a double play. Severino worked behind in the count quite a bit and surrendered seven hits and three walks across six innings, but he was able to repeatedly navigate out of danger against the worst offense in baseball. Severino ultimately only allowed one run on a Jake Burger solo shot in the top of the sixth.
For much of the night, it looked like that was going to be enough to beat him. On top of that, Jazz Chisholm added a solo home run in the seventh off Drew Smith to extend the Marlins lead to 2-0.
For whatever reason, Skip Schumaker pulled Muñoz after the sixth inning he completed the sixth inning with only 84 pitches, despite the fact that the young starter has thrown over 100 pitches this year. Regardless, he went to Anthony Bender for the seventh, who immediately found trouble.
Bender walked Brandon Nimmo to lead off the inning, and then gave up a double to Martinez to set the tying run in scoring position. The Mets had just one runner in scoring position all night against Muñoz, but now had doubled that total in just a matter of a few pitches against Bender.
Bender then walked Pete Alonso to load the bases with nobody out, and fell down 3-0 to Starling Marte. This was looking like a classic reliever meltdown and the Mets were poised to not only tie the game, but break through in a big way and take the lead.
Marte took a strike to make it 3-1, and then bailed Bender out by chasing a sinker running in on him and grounding it into a 5-4-3 double play. A run scored on the play, but the rally was sufficiently killed. Schumaker wisely pulled the plug on Bender while he was still ahead, and inserted Calvin Faucher into the game to face Mark Vientos with the tying run on third, and Vientos grounded out to end the frame.
Sean Reid-Foley held the Marlins off the board in the eighth, but the bottom of the Mets lineup couldn’t get anything going in the bottom half, and it went to the ninth with Miami still up 2-1.
Edwin Díaz, fresh off the injured list, came on for the ninth inning for some low-stress work, and tossed a 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout. It was a very encouraging outing for the Mets’ closer. The fastball velocity was back to the 98-100 range, which he really hasn’t touched all year, and the slider looked better too. Getting Díaz back to form would be a welcome development, no matter how the rest of the season shapes up.
With the Mets down to their last licks, Tanner Scott came on for Miami to try to close it out. The wild Marlins closer was, well, a little wild. He walked Francisco Lindor to start the inning, and struck Nimmo out. That brought up Martinez, batting third tonight.
Martinez got ahead in the count 3-1, and then blasted a 3-1 slider out to right-center field and beyond the moved-in Citi Field fences for a two-run, walk-off homer to give the Mets the 3-2 win. It also saved them from what would’ve been, frankly, a pretty embarrassing defeat to the second-worst team in baseball
For Martinez, it was the 321st home run of his career, but it was somehow the first walk-off home run of his now 14-year career. Baseball is a funny game.
The Mets get their 30th win in dramatic fashion, and move back to 3.0 games back of the sixth seed. The Mets really don’t deserve to be as close to a playoff spot as they are, but they are still in it, and they have a bunch of bad teams and wild card opponents coming up on the schedule, starting this weekend with the Padres. This win, obviously, helps them keep pace a little longer.
The Mets are 8-4 since what most would consider the nadir of the season, otherwise known as the “Jorge Lopez Game.”
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:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25490922/chart.png "J.D. Martinez plays hero with his first career walk-off (1)")
What’s WPA?
Big Mets winner: J.D. Martinez, +89.5% WPA
Big Mets loser: Starling Marte, -17.7% WPA
Mets pitchers: +14.3% WPA
Mets hitters: +35.7% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: J.D. Martinez hits a two-run walk-off homer, +72.9% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Jake Burger hits a solo homer in the sixth inning, +19.6% WPA
