Marlins Reliever Makes Mets' Day Worse With Winning Hit
NEW YORK (WFAN/AP) -- The Mets hoped all the bad news was limited to the walls of the Hospital for Special Surgery. Then a relief pitcher made an awful day even worse.
Marlins reliever Burke Badenhop drove in Mike Stanton with his second career hit, a two-out single in the 11th inning, and Florida rallied for a 2-1 victory Monday night.
The game was played in a thick, soupy mist that delayed the start by more than an hour — and provided a perfect accompaniment for the Mets' dismal day.
David Wright had an MRI exam that revealed a stress fracture in his lower back. Top prospect Jenrry Mejia had Tommy John surgery, and starting pitcher Chris Young had shoulder surgery.
Things were going better at the ballpark until the Marlins' Mike Stanton hit a tying homer in the seventh inning against Mets starter Mike Pelfrey.
Then things really unraveled once the game went to extra innings.
Badenhop (1-0) came to bat after escaping a two-on, two-out jam in the 10th. Stanton was already on second and Emilio Bonifacio was on first when Badenhop lined a single up the middle off Ryota Igarashi (2-1) for his first hit since June 3, 2008, and his second career RBI.
Leo Nunez pitched the bottom half of the 11th for his 15th save, despite allowing a two-out triple to pitcher Jonathon Niese — pinch-hitting because the Mets were out of batters.
"Uncomfortable, from start to finish. No doubt," Mets manager Terry Collins said of the game. "We had a lot of things in our advantage and we couldn't capitalize on them."
The loss was disheartening.
The news about Wright was crushing.
The star third baseman has been bothered by his back since he made a diving tag on Houston's Carlos Lee during a game April 19 at Citi Field. He said it has felt stiff but he'd been able to play through it, until the team forced him to have an MRI exam on Monday.
The scans at the Hospital for Special Surgery revealed the extent of the injury.
"He's not someone who likes to come out of the lineup, much less go on the disabled list," Mets GM Sandy Alderson said. "It's something that David, I think, was surprised about."
Wright is likely to go on the disabled list Tuesday, though Alderson said the normal course of treatment is rest rather than any form of surgery.
"I thought going in it would just be a routine thing," Wright said. "I was preparing for Josh Johnson and the Marlins and coming out of that, my head was spinning.
"I don't think I was scared. I think disappointed," he said. "You want to be with your teammates and I feel like not being able to do that is disappointing. It's frustrating, you know? But I've played through this so I know that I'm not scared by any means. Hopefully get this thing knocked out in two weeks and be right back at it."
The Mets thought they might be able to salvage something of the day once the game finally started, taking a 1-0 lead on Justin Turner's RBI double in the fourth.
New York had another chance to score in the fifth, when Jose Reyes singled and Carlos Beltran lined a shot back at the pitcher that Johnson tried to knock down. The ball ricocheted off his forearm toward the left side of the infield for a hit, and the Marlins training staff came out to check on their ace. He got through the rest of the inning before he was lifted.
"It just got tight there," said Johnson, who doesn't think the bruised forearm will force him to miss any starts. "Just see how it reacts the next couple days."
Both starting pitchers got help from their defense.
Willie Harris, starting in place of Wright at third base, laid out to stab John Buck's liner with two on and two out in the fourth. Then in the fifth, Beltran made a sliding grab of Chris Coghlan's sinking flyball and alertly doubled Infante off second to end the inning.
Logan Morrison sent a pitch screaming to the deepest part of the park with one out in the sixth, but center fielder Jason Pridie had enough room to make the catch against the wall.
There wasn't enough room in any park to hold Stanton's shot off Pelfrey in the seventh. The ball landed above and to the right of the home run apple in center field, making it one of the longest home runs hit in the 2-plus-year history of Citi Field.
"He didn't have his good stuff tonight," Collins said of his big starting pitcher. "I mean, he knows how to pitch, like all those other guys that are so good. They compete when they don't have their best stuff, and that's what he did."
New York loaded the bases in the ninth against Ryan Webb, and Collins decided to pinch hit for Harris with Chin-lung Hu, who grounded out against Randy Choate to end the inning. They had another chance with runners on first and second in the 10th, but Turner's hard groundball up the middle bounced off Ramirez right to Omar Infante, who turned the inning-ending double play.
"It was a weird game from the beginning," Marlins manager Edwin Rodriguez said. "A night like that, anything can happen, and it did happen."
NOTES: Ramirez went 0 for 6 and left seven on base while batting second for the first time since 2006. ... After the game, the Mets sent Hu and Igarashi to Triple-A Buffalo and recalled SS Ruben Tejada. They also activated RHP Pedro Beato (right elbow tendinitis) from the DL.
How long will Wright be out? Make your prediction in the comments below...
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