Marlins Take Pounding In 11-2 Loss To Mets
NEW YORK (CBSMiami/AP) -- The New York Mets pounded the Miami Marlins Friday night in route to an 11-2 victory.
Amed Rosario hit a grand slam during an eight-run outburst that marked the Mets' biggest first inning in three decades.
Michael Conforto and Jeff McNeil also homered for the previously slumping Mets, who set a season best with 15 hits and matched their high for runs. Zack Wheeler (3-2) struck out 11 over seven innings, reaching double digits for the third time in four outings.
After totaling only 15 runs on a 1-5 road trip, the Mets broke loose back home against Pablo Lopez (2-5) and the major league-worst Marlins (10-28). New York sent 13 batters to the plate in the first, with J.D. Davis and Robinson Cano each getting two of the team's eight hits.
The first run scored on Lopez's wild pitch. Slow-footed Wilson Ramos beat out a dribbler up the third base line for an RBI single, and Brandon Nimmo drew a bases-loaded walk.
Rosario, batting eighth, sent the next pitch the opposite way and just over the right-center fence for his first major league slam -- instantly giving him a career-high four RBIs.
Wheeler struck out, making him the first batter retired by Lopez. But when Cano added a two-out RBI single, the Mets had their largest first inning since they also scored eight times at Philadelphia on June 16, 1989.
It was more runs than they'd scored during an entire game since a 9-0 win over the Phillies on April 23. New York mustered only 16 runs over its previous eight games -- one of which went 18 innings.
The only other time in franchise history they hung a snowman in the first at home was July 12, 1979, against the Dodgers. The club record is nine first-inning runs in August 1988 at San Francisco.
The inning could have been even worse for Lopez, too, if right fielder Brian Anderson hadn't wheeled around to make a spectacular throw that nabbed McNeil trying to go first to third on Davis' single for the first out.
McNeil opened the game with a bunt single and reached safely four times. Conforto was 3 for 3 and reached safely all five times up, including a walk and a hit by pitch. Davis finished with three hits.
Conforto homered into the right field upper deck leading off the second. McNeil connected in the third against the 23-year-old Lopez, who was coming off six shutout innings against Atlanta and had not allowed an earned run in two of his previous three starts.
Lopez, who beat Mets ace Jacob deGrom 5-2 in his major league debut June 30 last year, gave up 10 runs and 10 hits over three innings this time, easily the worst of his 18 career starts.
(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
