Mets Outrun Marlins, 5-1
NEW YORK (AP) — David Wright hit a two-run homer to become the Mets' career RBIs leader, R.A. Dickey outpitched Mark Buehrle in a crafty duel Wednesday night and New York beat the Miami Marlins 5-1.
Jose Reyes singled with one out in the Marlins' eighth inning for his first hit against his former team in eight at-bats, eliciting yet another chorus of lusty boos from the crowd that once adored the ever-smiling shortstop.
Lucas Duda had an RBI single and pinch-hitter Mike Baxter hit a two-run double in the eighth, helping hand the Marlins their fourth straight loss. Miami has scored only four runs in the skid.
Wright's homer gave him 735 RBIs and broke a tie with Darryl Strawberry for the team lead.
In contrast to the matchup of aces Johan Santana and Josh Johnson on Tuesday night that the Mets ended up winning 2-1, Dickey (3-1) and Buehrle (1-3) rarely reached 85 mph on the scoreboard radar. Dickey allowed three hits and a walk, and struck out seven.
Both starters were hurt by the homer, though.
Omar Infante connected in the fifth for the Marlins' second hit and Wright in the sixth, the Mets' fourth hit of the game. Wright had matched Strawberry a week ago on the club's RBIs chart.
Jon Rauch gave up a one-out hit in the eighth to Reyes with the Mets ahead 2-1. Having seen what the dynamic speedster could do on the bases might have spooked catcher Josh Thole. On a called third strike of Hanley Ramirez to end the inning, Thole threw down to second where no one was covering — his teammates were running off the field.
With the weather more to his liking, Dickey bounced back from a horrid outing in rainy Atlanta in which he gave up three homers and eight runs in 4 1-3 innings.
After breezing through the first 4 1-3 innings this time, allowing only a hit that nicked off the glove of diving third baseman Wright, the knuckleballer gave up a homer to Infante.
Infante connected to deep left, ending a string of 10 straight outs for Miami. Reyes was right there at the top step of the Marlins dugout to greet the second baseman with one of his elaborate handshakes that Mets fans loved to see when he was playing in Queens.
The homer snapped Miami's stretch without an earned run against Dickey at 24 innings. He was 3-0 in three starts against the Marlins last season, allowing only one unearned run.
Dickey had a 1-2-3 sixth, then Buehrle hit Kirk Nieuwenhuis with a pitch leading off the bottom half. With two outs, Wright sent a drive to center field that cleared the new fences — but would've hit the old green-black wall — to make it 2-1. Wright was 2 for 20 before that homer.
Buehrle was facing the Mets for the first time in a 12-plus year career spent entirely with the Chicago White Sox until signing a free-agent deal this winter to follow his former manager to Miami. Pitching on six days' rest he gave up five hits and two runs.
Buehrle got some help from Gaby Sanchez in the fourth. With a runner on first and two outs, he made a diving stop behind first base on Duda's sharp grounder to end the inning.
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