MIAMI — Arguably the worst weekend of the Mets’ season ended with averting the embarrassment of a South Florida sweep
Much of the lineup is still trying to find consistency and Edwin Diaz’s role is “fluid” after three straight blown saves.
But the Mets were good enough Sunday to win 7-3 at loanDepot park, allowing them to salvage the series finale against the MLB-worst Marlins after two straight losses that were numbing for different reasons.
On Friday the Mets were shut out for the second time in four games and followed that with a gut punch, when Diaz couldn’t protect a four-run lead in the ninth that became a 10-inning loss.
Reed Garrett earned a two-inning save Sunday by holding the Marlins scoreless. The Mets (21-25) will open a three-game series on Monday in Cleveland.
Sean Manaea gave the Mets a chance by allowing two earned runs on five hits with one walk and four strikeouts over five innings.
It was the first time in three starts the left-hander failed to pitch at least six innings.
The Mets sent nine batters to the plate in the first and raced to a 4-0 lead against Sixto Sanchez, who threw 40 pitches in the inning.
For a second straight game, Francisco Lindor was hit by a pitch leading off the game.
The Mets proceeded to load the bases, on a walk to Brandon Nimmo and DJ Stewart’s single, before Tyrone Taylor smashed a two-run double. Brett Baty followed with a walk and Harrison Bader’s single brought in two additional runs.
Manaea walked Emmanuel Rivera leading off the second before Dane Myers launched a two-run homer that sliced the Mets’ lead to 4-2. Manaea hung a slider that Myers hit over the left-field fence.
The Marlins put two runners on base in the fourth, but Manaea escaped by striking out Myers and Vidal Brujan in succession. Rivera and Otto Lopez each singled in the inning to give the Marlins a threat.
Bryan De La Cruz’s single on a bad hop off Baty’s glove extended the inning for Manaea in the fifth, but the left-hander recovered to retire Josh Bell (whose three-run homer against Diaz a day earlier helped sink the Mets).
Sean Reid-Foley allowed two runners to reach base in the sixth before striking out Myers and Brujan to end the inning.
Christian Bethancourt led off the seventh with a homer against Jake Diekman that sliced the Mets’ lead to 4-3. The homer was the first this season for Bethancourt, who entered the day batting .132.
In the ninth, Lindor singled (for his second hit of the game) and Brandon Nimmo delivered his seventh homer to give the Mets’ a three-run cushion. Baty’s ensuing RBI single extended the lead to 7-3.