Zac attacked in Flushing as Mets 86'd by Marlins

Marlins 6 Mets 2 (Citi Field, Flushing, NY)

Mets record: 47-65

Mets streak: Lost 2

WP - Tyler Phillips (3-5)

LP - Zac Thornton (2-2)

SV - Lake Bachar (2)

Seat on the Korner: Javier Sanoja

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.

Javier Sanoja probably had the most impactful hit of the day, a two-run homer in the 2nd which gave the Marlins a 3-0 lead and provided the margin of victory in a 6-2 Marlins victory on 1986 Championship Celebration day.

Need to Know

• Before the game, the Mets honored the 1986 Mets 40 years after their World Series title.

• Not many of the 1986 Mets have faced the Marlins for an extended time, but Kevin Mitchell batted .317 lifetime against the Florida Marlins with 5 HR's and 17 RBI in 53 at-bats.

• Zac Thornton had his first struggle of the season. He threw 94 pitches in 4 and 2/3's innings, giving up three earned runs on 6 hits and 3 walks while striking out two. The four total runs he gave up were tied for the most he has given up in the game.

• Francisco Lindor's error in the first inning was his 7th in his 54th game of the season at shortstop. Lindor made 13 errors last season in 158 games. He also has 6 errors since returning from the IL, which is third most in MLB.

• On the other side, Lindor was the only Met in the lineup with multiple hits, going 2-for-4.

• Tyler Phillips pitched five innings plus for the Marlins, giving up just the two run HR to Tyrone Taylor, six hits all together, no walks, and three strikeouts.

  
  

Turning Point

Strange to say that a sac fly was a turning point. But hear me out: Tyrone Taylor had brought the Mets back to 3-2 in the 2nd inning with a home run, and then both teams held serve in the third.

In the 4th inning, Zac Thornton led off the inning by hitting Esteury Ruiz. Leadoff walks will kill you and lead off HBPs will kill you slower because that takes less pitches. As is usually the case with a bad team, they paid for that HBP with a sac fly that made it 4-2 and the Marlins wouldn't look back.

Three Keys

It Got Thorny

At some point, Zac Thornton was going to struggle. Today, it was his control that failed him, with only 56 strikes in his 94 pitches. But the problem was that when he missed, he missed badly. It wasn't a case of Thornton nibbling and just missing ... he was losing the plate entirely. As for the home run to Sanoja? Cutter right in the wheelhouse.

To be fair, there were so many delays during Thornton's time on the mound that it was just hard to get a rhythm, and that wasn't truer than it was in the second. You had pitch clock violations and a replay review that kept Thornton from getting the ball and firing it with any sort of cadence. But Thornton suffered from being wild in and out of the strike zone, and eliminating the other distractions wasn't going to help that.

Where Have You Gone, Roger and Jesse?

With A.J. Minter gone, Brooks Raley one foot out the door, and the status of Luke Weaver and Huascar Brazoban in flux, you're going to see at least one more game where the bullpen is going to look a lot like it did today, whether it's Xavion Curry for five innings, or the likes of Daniel Duarte, Jonathan Pintaro, and Kevin Herget to take over for the starter.

They've done an admirable job under the circumstances. But if Weaver and Brazoban are traded along with Minter and probably Raley, then you're going to see a lot of these guys for two months. These guys getting expanded roles is going to be either great experience for these guys, or a really long two months for us. Perhaps both.

As of right this very moment, the Mets don't have a starter for Sunday ... preferring to have Clay Holmes start for Brooklyn tomorrow which is more of a procedural move in the instance of a trade. This means that Sunday could be a bullpen game, which isn't optimal after all the innings they've logged in the last two days, and it'll be less optimal of the likes of Raley, Brazoban and Weaver are either held back in case of a trade or traded all together.

If there's one thing we learned from the '86 celebration, it's that Roger McDowell and Jesse Orosco still look like they could throw a couple of innings. (They can't be any worse than a position player pitching.)

Will Other Teams Call Tyrone?

Tyrone Taylor hit his 10th home run of the season today, and his 3rd in the last 6 games. He has 7 homers and an OPS of 1.311 in his last 23 games and leads the league in OPS since June 26th.

Taylor had hit nine home runs in his previous two seasons with the Mets.

There has been a lot of talk about Luis Robert getting wheeled, and Taylor would be the guy to be the third outfielder along with A.J. Ewing and Carson Benge. But now that Taylor is on a power heater (Taylor actually averaged 13 homers a season from 2021-23 with the Brewers), might there be a team that would have a little interest in a good defender with a little pop who is on an expiring contract? It doesn't seem as farfetched as it did at the beginning of July.