MIAMI — Arguably the Mets’ worst weekend of the season ended having averted the embarrassment of a South Florida sweep.
Much of the lineup is still trying to find consistency and Edwin Diaz’s role is “fluid” after three straight blown saves. But the Mets were good enough Sunday to win, 7-3, at loanDepot Park, allowing them to salvage the series finale against the MLB-worst Marlins after two straight losses that were numbing for different reasons.
On Friday, the Mets were shut out for the second time in four games. They followed that with a gut punch Saturday when Diaz couldn’t protect a four-run lead in the ninth in what became a 10-inning loss.
“It’s a ‘Rocky’ saying, but it’s not how hard you can hit, but it’s how hard you can [get] hit and get back up,” Brandon Nimmo said. “We’ve been hit pretty hard in the last couple of weeks, so I am proud of the guys bouncing back, especially after a night like [Saturday].”
Reed Garrett earned a two-inning save Sunday by holding the Marlins scoreless as the Mets regained a semblance of the bullpen efficiency that has helped carry the team this season.
Nimmo’s two-run homer in the ninth packed the most wallop of the Mets’ 12 hits for the afternoon. The Mets gifted Sean Manaea with four runs in the first inning.
“It shows a lot about this room right here, especially after that game [Saturday] for us to come out in that first inning and right away putting pressure and real good at-bats up and down the lineup,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “It was not an easy weekend; not the way we expected it.”
Manaea gave the Mets a chance by allowing two earned runs on five hits with one walk and four strikeouts over five innings. It was the first time in three starts the left-hander failed to pitch at least six innings.
The Mets sent nine batters to the plate in the first and raced to a 4-0 lead against Sixto Sanchez, who threw 40 pitches in the inning.
For a second straight game, Francisco Lindor was hit by a pitch leading off the game.
The Mets proceeded to load the bases, on a walk to Brandon Nimmo and DJ Stewart’s single, before Tyrone Taylor smashed a two-run double. Brett Baty followed with a walk and Harrison Bader’s single brought in two additional runs.
“I thought guys controlled the strike zone, and when they got their pitches, they put good swings on it,” Mendoza said, “especially Taylor with the bases loaded.”
Manaea walked Emmanuel Rivera leading off the second before Dane Myers launched a two-run homer that sliced the Mets’ lead to 4-2. Manaea hung a slider that Myers hit over the left-field fence.
The Marlins put two runners on base in the fourth, but Manaea escaped by getting Myers and Vidal Brujan in succession. Rivera and Otto Lopez each singled in the inning to give the Marlins a threat.
Bryan De La Cruz’s single on a bad hop off Baty’s glove extended the inning for Manaea in the fifth, but the left-hander recovered to retire Josh Bell (whose three-run homer against Diaz a day earlier helped sink the Mets).
Sean Reid-Foley allowed two runners to reach base in the sixth before striking out Myers and Brujan to end the inning. Christian Bethancourt led off the seventh with a homer against Jake Diekman that sliced the Mets’ lead to 4-3.
The homer was the first this season for Bethancourt, who entered the day batting .132.
In the ninth, Lindor singled for his second hit of the game, and Nimmo delivered his seventh homer to give the Mets a three-run cushion. Baty’s ensuing RBI single extended the lead to 7-3.
A day earlier, Mendoza flip-flopped Lindor and Nimmo in the batting order, moving Lindor to leadoff and Nimmo to the third spot, maximizing his potential to drive in runs.
“It’s two days,” Mendoza said. “You are going to go through some stretches where it’s going to be hard, but the last couple of games I like how it’s going.”
