Marlins Look For Another Success Against The Mets
MIAMI (AP) -- The Miami Marlins are among the best offensive teams in baseball, and that's mostly due to their success at home.
Coming off another victory in their final at-bat, the Marlins look to continue their surge in South Florida by beating the New York Mets at home for the fourth straight time Tuesday night.
Miami (17-15) is batting .271 to rank third in the majors, while its 33 homers and 153 runs are also among the best in baseball.
Much of the Marlins' offensive success has come while going 15-5 at home. They're second in the majors with a .305 home batting average while hitting 21 homers with 121 runs.
Miami averaged 7.2 runs while going 4-1 on the first half of its 10-game homestand, and though it's only totaled nine runs in the last two, it has come through in the clutch. Jeff Baker's two-out RBI double sealed a walkoff 5-4 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday before Casey McGehee's ninth-inning single secured Monday's 4-3 win over the Mets, completing a rally from a three-run deficit in the eighth.
"The Marlins have been hot, especially in this park and late," Mets manager Terry Collins said. "They can be really tough."
McGehee certainly fits that bill. The third baseman is hitting .355 with 19 RBIs at Marlins Park, going 11 for 26 over the past six games there after getting two hits Monday.
He's hitting .234 with two RBIs on the road.
Pitching, though, has keyed Miami's six wins over the past eight home meetings with New York, as the staff has a 2.84 ERA while holding the Mets to a .224 average.
The Marlins will try to keep that going by giving the ball to Henderson Alvarez (1-2, 3.28 ERA), who's 2-0 with a 1.77 ERA over his last three starts against the Mets (16-15). That includes yielding two runs in six innings while not getting a decision in a 4-3 loss at New York on April 25.
The right-hander, though, followed that up with a less impressive performance Thursday against Atlanta. He gave up two homers in a game for the first time since Sept. 24, 2012, with those accounting for the four runs he allowed over six innings before the Marlins rallied to win 5-4.
The Mets have dropped four of five, and will give the ball to Bartolo Colon (2-4, 5.65), who has lost three of four starts behind a 7.61 ERA.
The right-hander also has surrendered an NL worst-tying seven homers, and the four he's given up in the first inning lead the majors. He allowed a solo shot in the opening inning Thursday, giving up seven runs and 10 hits in 4 2-3 innings of a 7-4 loss at Colorado.
"My two-seamer wasn't going where I wanted it to go," Colon told the team's official website through an interpreter. "I didn't have any command from the first inning on. I had no control of where the ball was going.
Colon hasn't faced the Marlins since 2002 with Montreal.
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