Forget the can of corn. The Mets’ trip down to Miami was as easy as a can of tuna.
New York (64-37) completed a three-game sweep of the Marlins on Sunday behind a season-high 19 hits in a 9-3 victory that is their sixth straight dating back to last Sunday’s series finale against the San Diego Padres.
Seven Mets recorded multi-hit games while Francisco Lindor, Jeff McNeil, and Mark Canha each had three-hit days.
“[We know] how hard it is to win three games in a row on the road in the same ballpark,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said. “It was impressive our guys came out with that kind of intensity facing good pitching here. I can’t say it surprises me the things these guys are able to do. The concentration… they’re really good concentrators. It was fun to watch.”
Ten of those hits came in the first three innings as New York shot out of the gates against one of the Marlins’ aces in Pablo Lopez, who allowed just two hits in seven innings in his previous start against the Cincinnati Reds.
They sent eight batters to the plate in the first inning alone to score three runs. Back-to-back doubles from Lindor and Pete Alonso put the Mets on the board before a single by Daniel Vogelbach put runners on the corners.
McNeil singled home Alonso for the Mets’ fourth consecutive hit and two batters later, Canha’s two-out knock made it a trio of runs.
“Today just kind of sums it up,” Canha told SNY. “We’ve had our ups and downs but we come outevery now and again and a day like today, we wanted to get a sweep, we wanted to finish this series strong. We showed it. We came out and had focused at-bats. That’s what you have to do against a guy like Pablo.”
The Mets up another three in the third inning, which included an RBI triple from the newly-acquired Tyler Naquin and Canha’s second knock of the afternoon to help drive Lopez out of the game after just 2.2 innings of work.
While the lead increased to seven in the fifth following a Brandon Nimmo RBI groundout, starting pitcher Taijuan Walker began to slow allowing three runs over the next two innings to get the hook with two outs in the sixth inning.
Miami hit five doubles on Sunday while Charles Leblanc hit his first career MLB home run to drive Walker from the game. It was the Marlins’ first home run at Loan Depot Park since July 5.
The Mets quickly re-opened their advantage to a more comfortable margin thanks to a rough seventh inning by Miami’s Joey Wendle. With runners on second and third, Nimmo hit a sharp grounder that was fielded by the second baseman, but he bit on Luis Guillorme straying from second, coaxing a throw to get him but allowing Canha to score from third. This after Canha stole second.
Lindor then ripped a grounder that deflected off the diving Wendle and into right-center field, allowing Nimmo to score all the way from first to make it a 9-3 game.
“It’s just impressive that we’ve come back and we’re grinding,” Canha said. “We’re still grinding like we were at the beginning of the season. That’s going to be the key. Keep doing that consistently on a regular basis.
“We’re not going to get 19 hits every night. But if we can work hard and battle and it can be our identity, that’s where we’ll want to be.”
A quick turnaround awaits the Mets as they start a three-game series in Washington, D.C. against the Nationals beginning Monday night with Max Scherzer on the hill. All eyes, however, will be focused on Tuesday when Jacob deGrom makes his long-awaited 2022 season debut.
