Marlins rally to take rubber match from Mets
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Miami, FL (SportsNetwork.com) - Giancarlo Stanton and Ichiro Suzuki each homered and drove in three runs to keep the Miami Marlins rolling with a 7-3 victory over the New York Mets that decided a three-game series.
Stanton and Adeiny Hechavarria both went 2-for-4 with a run scored, while Dee Gordon added two more to his MLB-leading hit total and drove in one run in the Marlins' seventh win in their last eight.
Miami did lose starting pitcher Mat Latos to a strained left hamstring in the fifth inning, but Sam Dyson (1-0) stepped in to toss two spotless frames and earn the win.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Bartolo Colon (4-1) suffered his first loss of the season for New York, permitting all four Marlins runs on nine hits over 6 2/3 innings.
Michael Cuddyer paced the Mets at the plate by going 2-for-4 with a two-run homer.
The Marlins were down 3-2 when Latos pulled up lame as he reached first base while leading off the bottom of the fifth with a single, a hit that took the right-hander off the hook for a possible loss thanks to a clutch two-out at- bat from Stanton.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Gordon followed Latos' hit with a single but Colon got Martin Prado to bounce into a double play. The Mets starter then put Stanton in an 0-2 hole before the slugger shot a grounder in the hole and beat Daniel Murphy's throw from second to plate pinch-runner Donovan Solano and tie the game at 3-3.
The Mets didn't have a baserunner during Dyson's two innings of work, and Hechavarria began the bottom of the seventh with a double prior to being pushed to third on a sac bunt. Gordon then lofted a fly to right plenty deep enough to bring home the go-ahead run.
"I thought I pitched a good game and the team behind me gave me support," Colon remarked. "Too bad I couldn't pick them up when I needed to."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Suzuki gave Miami some breathing room by belting his first homer as a Marlin, a line-drive shot off Alex Torres with two on in the eighth.
"Hitting the home run, I was very happy about," Suzuki said through a translator. "But I was happier because my teammates were there, and they were happy. To me, that was way bigger than actually hitting the home run."
Both starting pitchers served up two-run homers in the opening inning. Cuddyer followed Lucas Duda's single by crushing a flat slider from Latos over the well in left center to briefly put the Mets ahead, as Stanton answered with a blast well into the left-field seats with Prado aboard in Miami's half of the frame.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Curtis Granderson sent New York back in front by beginning the third with a double and crossing the plate via consecutive groundouts by Juan Lagares and Duda.
Latos ended with a final line of three runs allowed on five hits over five innings.
"I can walk on it. I just cant straighten my leg," Latos said of his injury. "It's real tight."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Game Notes
Gordon is batting .583 (14-of-24) during a six-game hitting streak and now has 38 hits this season, two shy of a Marlins' record for April set by Mike Lowell in 2002 ... Stanton has six homers and 14 RBI over his past 13 games ... Colon was attempting to join Roger Clemens (2004) as the only pitchers past 40 years of age to win their first five starts of a season ... Mets reliever Jack Leathersich made his MLB debut by recording the final out of the eighth.