Early Bird Special: Mets top Marlins in 11
- msilverman78
- Apr 3
- 6 min read
Mets 6, Marlins 5 (loanDepot park, Miami, FL)
Mets record: 3-3
Mets streak: Won 1
Last 10: 3-3
WP - Jose Butto (1-0)
LP - Xzavion Curry (0-1)
SV - Huascar Brazoban (1)
Seat on the Korner: Pete Alonso
We select the star of the game and virtually invite him to a Seat on the Korner, just as Ralph Kiner used to do for his studio postgame show on WOR-channel 9 broadcasts in the early decades of the Mets.
Francisco Lindor is off to another slow start and Juan Soto has had some problems in clutch situations, but Pete Alonso continues to rise to the occasion. Alonso was having a good day at the bat -- two doubles and an RBI -- even before he stepped up to the plate with two on in the eighth and the Mets trailing, 4-1. Alonso worked worked the count to 2-2, kept on fouling off pitches and, on the ninth pitch from, Marlins reliever Calvin Faucher, pounded one over the center field fence to tie the game. Have a seat, Pete, and walk us through that at-bat.
Need to Know
Both starting catchers had their first major league hits on Wednesday: Miami's Liam Hicks singled in the second inning and Mets rookie Hayden Senger lashed a double in the fifth.
In the ugly home seventh inning Ryne Stanek was the first Met in 2025 to allow an inherited runner to score.
A.J. Minter's balk later in the seventh, when he fell off the mound, was the first call of its kind on the Mets in 2025. Minter and manager Carlos Mendoza argued unsuccessfully it should have been called a pitch.
Jonesing for minor league ball? The Class AAA Syracuse Mets (1-2) are up and running, but Binghamton (AA), Brooklyn (High A), and St. Lucie (A) all start up on Friday, April 4, the same day the New York Mets return home for the first time in 2025.
Today marks the 53rd anniversary of the shocking death of Gil Hodges from a heart attack shortly after finishing golf with his coaches in West Palm Beach, FL. Ironically the coaches had time for 27 holes that day in 1972 because the camps were shut due to the first strike in major league history. Hodges was two days shy of his 48th birthday. Pitching coach Rube Walker was Hodges' right-hand man and took over the club when Hodges was ill or ejected, and director of player personnel and former Mets third base coach Whitey Herzog was also available (and given his future as a Hall of Fame manager Whitey was, in hindsight, an infinitely better choice), but longtime Mets coach Yogi Berra was selected by management to take over the club.
Turning Point
A game starting in the four o'clock hour allows fans to have their evening meal while watching the ballgame. Before the clock struck seven that meal might have gotten caught in the fans' throat. That's when Pete Alonso, who hit four balls 107 MPH or harder, blasted a three-run homer to tie the game. After a few more hard-to-chew through moments, at 8:10 Mets fans would be saying, "You know, that wasn't such a bad road trip after all." And now it's dessert time.
While Alonso's home run certainly turned the game on its head, the first career save by 35-year-old reliever Huascar Brazoban was the turning point of the kind of game whose biggest turning point was getting the last out.
Brazoban, the eighth Mets pitcher of the day, came in with one out in the 11th inning after Danny Young allowed a run-scoring single and walk to make it 6-5. Young, who struggled in a mop-up role in Monday night's win, got ahead of Griffin Conine 1-2. The scion of Mr. Marlin went fishing on a slider for the first out to bring in Brazoban, himself a former Marlin. The hurler has now allowed just 2 hits and 1 walk in 5 innings.
Pete still gets the seat with Ralph on the old set, but he should hand Huascar the $25 Getty gas coupon redeemable in 1970s cash, received for being on the show. The first 2025 road trip ended with a 3-3 mark despite having plenty of trouble scoring in Houston and Miami. But now it's on to the home cooking portion of the schedule.
Three Keys
From Dead Meat to Outta Here Pete
After a falling down balk by A.J. Minter put a runner on third in the bottom of the seventh, a brain fog by Mark Vientos on a ball he should have let go foul allowed a run to score to make it 3-1. Pete Alonso, already having an excellent game, made two heads up defensive plays that kept the Marlins from having a big inning instead of just a 4-1 lead that still looked like it was going to be more than enough to secure the first major league win for Connor Gillipsie (not to be confused with Giants third baseman Conor Gilaspie, whose homer ended the 2016 postseason run at Citi Field after all of one game). But Alonso had other plans.
Francisco Lindor, mired in a 1-for-18 start went down and pulled a ball to right to put runners on the corners with one out in the eighth. Juan Soto hit a grounder that Marlins first baseman Jonah Bride, just in for defense, did the exact opposite of Vientos the previous inning. Bride grabbed a ball near the line and made an accurate throw home for an easy out. That brought up Alonso. Pete fouled off 2 two-strike pitches off the plate to stay alive against reliever Calvin Faucher. The Mets 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position up until now, turned that stat as well as the game on its head as Alonso's sizzling shot to dead center cleared the wall and hit the grass (or is that turf?) behind the for a three-run home run to tie the game.
New Life, New Catcher
Carlos Mendoza made a tactical mistake when he warmed up Edwin Diaz in the top of the eighth, thinking (like those of us watching at home) that the closer needed some work in a game that looked like it was going the way of the Fishes. When the Mets tied the game, Mendoza decided, this early in the season, that he should bring a "hot" Diaz into the game. The first batter, Xavier Edwards, who had four hits in the game, hit a dribbler the Mets had no play on. He promptly stole second and then went to third when Diaz's next pitch skittered to the backstop. Sugar regrouped and caught Kyle Stowers looking. The next batter, Griffin Conine, hit a grounder to second base, but with the speed of Edwards, Bret Baty made a throw to the wrong side of the plate. The runner was called safe. But hold on! Replay came to the Mets' rescue. Edwards' hand appeared to be millimeters off the ground when Luis Torrens, just in the game, made the tag after scooping the ball and bringing it across the plate. Upon further review the runner was called out and the game remained tied.
For good measure, Torrens gunned down Conine trying to steal and the inning was over.
Jose Butto, who had warmed up back in the third inning, finally entered the game in the ninth. He tossed two innings that enabled the Mets to pull off the best win so far in 2025. Don't let anyone tell you the Marlins started six rookies and looked unbeatable until Pete came up in the eighth. Even rookies know that a win is a win.
A Fundamental Nightmare
Kids, now don't try anything the Mets did in the early going at home. Clay Holmes was neither especially good nor bad in his second turn in the rotation. It was everyone else who looked lousy in the the first seven innings of this game. A liner misjudged into a single by Tyrone Taylor was followed by a throwing error by Mark Vientos in the third as the Marlins jumped ahead, 2-1. Things looked up briefly in the fourth. Pete Alonso led off with his second double of a the day, a 113 MPH shot off the wall in left. Brandon Nimmo drove a ball to right that allowed Alonso to tag and go third. But Jesse Winker was caught looking and then Vientos waved at an offspeed pitch by Connor Gillispie to end the inning
and strand the runner in scoring position. That left the Mets hand hitless in 33 times in their first 37 opportunities with runners in scoring position. Except for Alonso's homer and a bloop single in extra innings that did not score a run, the Mets never did get that big hit. But the Mets weren't throwing back any Fish.
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