Marlins 5 – Mets 0
Hope for this season long ago withered away at Shea, replaced by plans for the next. And with last night’s defeat, the last-place Mets lost even the possibility of mediocrity, a .500 season. Their only role now is spoiler, and they’re not even doing that well.
The Mets squandered a brilliant outing by Steve Trachsel, and were shut out 5-0 by surging Florida in front of 15,155 die-hards at Shea.
The Marlins came in just a game behind Philadelphia in the NL wild card race, with the Phillies playing in Atlanta.
“These are big games,” Art Howe said beforehand, meaning big for Florida and Philadelphia. “There’s no way to sugarcoat it. They’re obviously important to the teams we play. We want to affect who wins the wild card and be a thorn in someone’s side.”
Things were testy enough that the benches almost cleared when Florida’s Alex Gonzalez – who’d hit a solo home run in the third – started jawing with catcher Vance Wilson after a ninth-inning walk. The four runs Florida subsequently scored off Met reliever Orber Moreno were just salt in the festering wound.
The Mets wasted seven stellar innings from Trachsel (14-9). He struck out eight – fanning Ivan Rodriguez four times – and allowed just one run.
Florida starter Josh Beckett (8-7) kept the ball on the ground all night. He threw six shutout innings, and his outfielders didn’t have a single put-out.
Pitching has powered the Marlins’ stunning turn-around. They were 16-22 when 72-year-old Jack McKeon replaced Jeff Torborg as manager on May 11, becoming the third-oldest skipper in history. Two days earlier, Dontrelle Willis arrived from the minors: Thanks to that duo, the Marlins have arrived.
Florida was 19-29 on May 22, but is 60-36 since, the best record in baseball. Owner Jeffrey Loria eschewed the Marlins’ annual June fire sale, instead going out and adding power reliever Ugueth Urbina, who came on in the seventh last night to protect the 1-0 lead.
Trachsel’s only mistake was that full-count pitch that Gonzalez drilled over the fence in left-center. Trachsel recovered to strike out the side in the fourth and escaped a jam in the fifth thanks to a fully-extended leaping catch by center fielder Prentice Redman, who was in because Roger Cedeno was ejected in the first inning for arguing a strike call.
With two on and one out in the fifth, Beckett collided with third baseman Miguel Cabrera trying to field a Trachsel sacrifice bunt, loading the bases. But Redman hit into a 6-4-3 double-play to end it. With two on and one out in the seventh, right fielder Juan Encarnacion made a diving catch to rob Tony Clark and Urbina struck out Redman.
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Jeff Duncan was still suffering from neck spasms yesterday, and was examined by team physician Dr. Andrew Rokito and associate physician Dr. Edward Greaney. Tests at the Hospital for Joint Diseases were negative.