Speed Kills Mets As Marlins Steal One

Marlins 2 Mets 1 (Loan Depot Park, Miami FL)

Mets record: 22-29

Mets streak: Lost 1

WP- Eury Perez (3-6)

LP- Sean Manaea (0-1)

S- Pete Fairbanks (6)

Seat on the Korner: Esteury Ruiz

We select a Star of the Game and virtually invite him to take his Seat on the Korner — just as Ralph Kiner did on WOR-TV Channel 9 during the early days of the New York Mets.

Continuing the tradition of Rheingold Beer sponsoring Kiner’s Korner, this season every seat is proudly presented by The Main Event Restaurant & Sports Bar.

With locations in Plainview and Farmingdale, The Main Event features 80+ HD TVs, fresh daily seafood, and Black Angus certified steaks—so you never have to choose between great food and the big game.

As the headline here blared -- speed kills, and in tonight's game Esteury Ruiz' speed killed the Mets. Ruiz, getting a rare start and hitting .176 going into the game, clouted a double in the second inning and before you could blink, he had stolen third. He then scored the tying run on an Owen Caissie ground out to first; even with the infield in, Mark Vientos had no play at home.

Then, in the fourth, Ruiz crushed a ball down the right field line. Before Mets right fielder Carson Benge, shading toward left, could get to the ball and recover it after sliding to try to make a catch, the speedy Ruiz was on third, where he scored on a Caissie single.

In sum, two of the Marlin's five hits, both of their runs and a chance to talk about it with Ralph.

Need to Know

• The loss dropped the Mets to a half game behind the Marlins.

• The Mets are now 12-8 in May.

• The Mets started an all-rookie outfield (Nick Morabito, A.J. Ewing and Carson Benge) for the first time since 2001 (Timo Perez, Tsuyoshi Shinjo Alex Escobar) and the earliest ever in the season. The previous: July, 1977 (Steve Henderson, Lee Mazzilli, Joel Youngblood) .

• Nick Morabito wore uniform number 55. No controversy here: the last Met to sport the double nickel was Richard Lovelady, earlier this year, and the most famous was Orel Hershiser, who had his best years facing the Mets, not playing for them. Better chance for it being retired as a speed limit than as a Mets uniform.

• Before the game, the Mets recalled Jonah Tong from Syracuse, amid speculation he would start tonight's game, or at least come in after Tobias Myers opened. To make room for Tong, the team designated Craig Kimbrel for assignment. In 14 games, Kimbrel had a 4.94 ERA in 15 innings.

• Juan Soto's first inning home run was his fourth on the road trip.

• Since April 23, Carson Benge has a .347 batting average, ranking sixth in the majors. He also is tied for fourth in MLB with 19 runs during that span. Benge's six-game hitting streak ended tonight.

• The Marlins, who scored a run in the second largely due to Esturey Ruiz' steal of third base, lead MLB in stolen bases.

• Another category where the Marlins hold a lead: successful ABS challenges. Their 73 successful challenges, out of 132, is the best in the NL and second only to Minnesota in MLB. They were 2-4 in tonight's game.

• Odd Marlins statistic: starter Eury Perez stands six feet eight inches. His parents are five foot three and four.

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Turning Point

I know this is a copout, but we'll list two and you can make your choice.

In a game where the Mets had few opportunities, they seemed poised to at least have a chance to tie the game when A.J. Ewing singled with two out in the top of the eighth. the speedy Ewing seemed poised to steal second, at least putting Met in scoring position, but he seemed to double clutch as he took off. With a perfect throw from Marlins catcher Joe Mack, Ewing was erased, ending the inning.

Same in the ninth, when with two outs Carson Benge worked out a walk. It seemed time for the Mets to break out against reliever Pete Fairbanks, especially with the recently hot Bo Bichette up and Juan Soto on deck. But Bichette, needing only to keep the line going and advance Benge to second, swing so hard at the first pitch (and missed) it was like those old cartoons where the batter screws himself into the ground. Bichette continued to overswing and ended up flying out to end the game.

Three Keys

METS BATS GO COLD

You'd have thought Mets batters would have been licking their lips over the prospect facing Marlins starter Eury Perez, who in three previous starts against the Mets was 0-3 with a 10.00 ERA, allowing four home runs and eight walks in nine innngs (albeit while striking out 13). But Mets hitters -- including hot batters Bo Bichette (four extra base hits in his last for games), Mark Vientos (14 RBI this month) and Brett Baty (.333 in his last 12 games) -- made Perez look like a Cy Young candidate. Perez pitched six and a third innings of two-hit ball, yielding only a first-inning home run to Juan Soto.

PITCHING GAMESMANSHIP

Tobias Myers opened for the Mets amid speculation that the newly-recalled Jonah Tong would follow. Marlins manager Clayton McCullough responded with a left-handed hitting heavy lineup. But instead of the right-handed Tong following the right-handed Myers Mets manager Carlos Mendoze brought in lefty Sean Manaea, who turned in his best outing of the season: 3.2 innings, four hits, one run, three strikeouts, no walks. Manaea looked closer to the pitcher who dazzled in 2024 and made a bit of a case that he belongs back in the rotation. Was it because Manaea has figured things out, or because the lineup was lefty-heavy? The righties did seem to fare better against him, but even so, Manaea made the case for being used in higher leverage situations.

Tong did enter the game in the sixth and pitched a perfect inning. He yielded a walk in the seventh, but a double play ended the inning, and then pitched a clean night. Three innings, no hits, one walk. A good start.

OH, SAY CAN MARSEE

Marlins centerfielder Jakob Marsee made two spectacular plays to rob Carson Benge of what looked like an extra base hit to lead off the game and another in the sixth. Perhaps if the roof at LoanDepot Park had been open, the ball might have carried farther. If either ball hand not ended up in Marsee's glove, the game might have had a different result.