Field Level Media
Aug 9, 2020
Jacob deGrom struck out six, and speedy rookie Andres Gimenez scored three runs, smacked three hits and stole one base, leading the host New York Mets to a 4-2 win over the Miami Marlins on Sunday afternoon.
Miami first baseman Jesus Aguilar's two-run homer did the only damage against deGrom (2-0), who lasted five innings. A two-time reigning National League Cy Young award winner, deGrom was not as sharp as usual, allowing seven hits and two walks.
The Mets, who won a home series for the first time this season, have won two straight games. Their bullpen did the job, producing four scoreless innings. Seth Lugo pitched the ninth for his third save of the season.
Miami, which had won seven of its first eight games and is still playing without 18 players who tested positive for Covid-19, has lost two in a row.
Marlins starter Pablo Lopez (1-1) took the loss, allowing five hits, four walks and three runs, two earned, in five innings.
Miami had a chance early, loading the bases with one out in the second but failing to score.
In the third, the Mets scored twice -- including one unearned run -- but also left the bases loaded. Gimenez singled, Tomas Nido and Brandon Nimmo drew walks, and Jeff McNeil hit an RBI groundout that could've been more if not for a diving stop by rookie second baseman Eddy Alvarez. The Mets made it 2-0 when Michael Conforto sliced a liner that Marlins left fielder Corey Dickerson dropped while charging forward.
It was the first error of the year for Dickerson, who won a Gold Glove in 2018.
New York extended its lead to 3-0 in the fourth as Gimenez pulled a double down the first-base line and scored on Nimmo's opposite-field single.
Miami got to deGrom in the fifth as Aguilar pulled a 97 mph fastball for his two-run homer to left.
New York had a chance to score in the fifth, but Conforto was thrown out at the plate by Lopez, who fielded a swinging bunt and flipped the ball home with his glove.
The Mets went up 4-2 in the sixth as Gimenez produced a drag-bunt hit, went to third on Nido's single and scored on McNeil's sacrifice fly.
Miami's Alvarez, in addition to his diving stop, went 3-for-4, including his first major-league hit, which came off deGrom. Alvarez's double off the wall in the eighth just missed becoming a score-tying, two-run homer.
--Field Level Media