Stanton, Marlins Tag Matz In 10-3 Win Over Scuffling Mets
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NEW YORK (AP) — Giancarlo Stanton homered to cap a seven-run second inning against Steven Matz, and the Miami Marlins handed the touted rookie his first regular-season loss with a 10-3 victory over the scuffling New York Mets on Monday night.
Marcell Ozuna homered and doubled to break out of an early slump, and Adeiny Hechavarria had three RBIs from the No. 8 spot in the lineup. By the sixth inning, every Marlins starting position player had a hit and scored a run.
Chris Johnson reached base four times in his first start for Miami, and J.T. Realmuto had three of the team's 15 hits. Martin Prado had two singles and two walks in a game that dragged on for 3 hours, 45 minutes, before a sparse crowd at Citi Field.
Handed an 8-0 lead in the third, Jarred Cosart was pulled from his season debut one out short of qualifying for a win. The right-hander, who threw 101 pitches in 4 2/3 innings, didn't look happy about it, either, throwing his head back on the mound when manager Don Mattingly signaled for left-hander Chris Narveson to face Lucas Duda with two on in a five-run game.
Narveson (1-0) struck out Duda and worked a scoreless sixth for the win.
With a nine-day layoff following his final spring training start, an ineffective Matz (0-1) got only five outs. The left-hander walked his first two batters in the second, and Hechavarria grounded a two-run single that caromed off third base.
Dee Gordon drove in a run with an infield single, but Matz had a chance to limit the damage when he got two strikes on Christian Yelich with two outs. Yelich, however, stayed back on a breaking ball and hit a two-run single to center.
Stanton then sent an 84 mph changeup to left-center on Matz's 40th and final pitch of the inning for the slugger's second homer of the season.
It was by far the worst professional outing for Matz, the Long Island lefty who grew up a Mets fan about 50 miles from Citi Field.
He went 4-0 with a 2.27 ERA in six regular-season starts last year and then pitched pretty well in the postseason, losing only to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL Division Series. He did not permit more than three runs in a big league game — including the postseason.
No Mets pitcher has won his first five regular-season decisions.
New York (2-4) has dropped three in a row, all at home to division opponents.
Before the game, manager Terry Collins was asked about the challenge of finding playing time early this season for his reserves. The defending NL champions entered with 14 runs in five games and a .180 batting average that ranked last in the majors.
"You know what right now? We've got to get this lineup rolling. I'm not really concerned about my backup players just this moment," Collins said. "We better get that lineup rolling or those backup players are going to be in that lineup. So that's the first and foremost thing on my mind."
TRAINER'S ROOM
Marlins: LHP Wei-Yin Chen is set to start Friday night's series opener against Atlanta, and LHP Adam Conley goes Wednesday against the Mets. Chen was hit on the left elbow by a line drive in the season opener last Tuesday vs. Detroit. He threw a bullpen session Sunday.
Mets: RHP Jacob deGrom headed home to Florida to be with his wife for the birth of their first child, but Collins said the team might not put deGrom on the paternity list. New York had already announced deGrom will miss his scheduled start Wednesday against Miami because of a sore lat muscle on his right side. He will be replaced by RHP Logan Verrett.
UP NEXT
Marlins ace Jose Fernandez faces Mets flamethrower Noah Syndergaard in a game matching two of baseball's most electric young arms. Both right-handers are 23, born less than a month apart. Syndergaard, who has never faced the Marlins, struck out nine over six innings in a 2-0 win at Kansas City last Tuesday. Fernandez fanned 13 over 5 2/3 innings Wednesday in a 7-3 loss to Detroit. He is 17-1 with a 1.61 ERA in his career at home and 5-9 with a 3.78 ERA on the road.
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