New York, NY—The Marlins’ playoff hopes continue to take a dive. Entering Saturday’s contest, their odds at making the postseason were at 3.6% according to FanGraphs. That number dropped another percentage point by the end of the night.
Coming off arguably the best start of his career in Houston, Braxton Garrett was tasked with another challenging assignment on Saturday, facing the first-place New York Mets in Queens. Things didn’t go quite as well for the young southpaw this time around.
After a 1-2-3 bottom of the first, the Mets got on the board in the second. A single and a walk set the Mets up with two men in scoring position for second baseman Jeff McNeil, who lined a base hit into right to give New York a 1-0 lead. Braxton was able to escape any further damage until the following inning.
In a deja vu moment, Francisco Lindor homered for the second game in a row to extend the Mets’ lead to 3-0. It was Lindor’s 11th home run of the season, which he hit after making a phenomenal defensive play in the top half of the inning. He was Ely Sussman’s MVP choice for this series during the Fish Stripes LIVE preview show.
This was Francisco Lindor’s first Mets at bat with his mom in attendance and he goes wild after hitting a three-run bomb! pic.twitter.com/knMzKPbEdY
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) June 17, 2022
Opposing Garrett was right-hander Taijuan Walker, who also came off a solid outing in which he struck out 10. After he allowed a leadoff infield single to Jon Berti, Walker retired 18 straight Marlin batters. Eventually, he walked second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. to lead off the 7th.
With two gone, Avisaíl García got the Marlins on the board with an RBI double to score Chisholm, which made it 3-1. García is having easily his best offensive month of the season, improving his overall slash line from .201/.231/.282 to .230/.271/.320 since the start of June.
Dylan Floro, Jimmy Yacabonis, Richard Bleier, and Louis Head combined to keep Miami in this one, blanking the Mets the rest of the way.
The 9th inning had some drama as Edwin Diaz came in to finish the contest. Jon Berti led the inning off with a single and promptly stole 2nd for his third stolen base of the game and 18th of the season. He leads the National League in that category. With Berti on second, Chisholm struck out looking on a controversial pitch that appeared to be way inside. Chisholm was furious with home plate umpire Adam Beck, and was eventually tossed from the ballgame.
Jazz Chisholm has been ejected for the first time in his career pic.twitter.com/Hqk0I0rXkV
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) June 18, 2022
Cleanup man Garrett Cooper came through with a two-out RBI single to make it a one-run game, but that’s where the magic ended. García struck out to end this one on a vintage Díaz wipeout slider.
Don Mattingly’s Postgame Press Conference
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Baseball Savant
The Marlins fell to 28-35 as the Mets improved to 44-23. Ace Sandy Alcantara will once again look to play stopper on Sunday afternoon against Chris Bassitt and the Mets.