NEW YORK — Bryan De La Cruz’s recent run of power hitting continued on Friday.
And it played a key role in the Miami Marlins evening up their series with the New York Mets.
De La Cruz hit a career-high three doubles and drew a walk as the Marlins beat the Mets, 5-2, at Citi Field.
Friday was De La Cruz’s third three-hit game of the season and the first time in 122 career MLB games that he recorded three extra-base hits in a game. He is the first Marlins player to hit three doubles in a game since Miguel Rojas did so on Sept. 17, 2019.
The first two led to Marlins runs.
His second-inning double to left field — a line drive over left fielder Mark Canha’s head on a full-count against Mets starter Chris Bassitt — scored Jesus Aguilar from second base to give Miami (40-42) an early 1-0 lead. Aguilar had led off the inning with an infield single and moved to second on an Avisail Garcia single.
De La Cruz then led off the fifth inning by sending a first-pitch sinker to the wall in right-center field. He moved to third base on a Rojas single and scored on a Joey Wendle sacrifice fly.
His third double, this time on a full-count curveball in the middle of the strike zone with one out in the seventh, chased Bassitt from the game. De La Cruz once again reached third base on a Rojas single but was stranded when Jacob Stallings hit into a double play.
All three of those hits had an exit velocity of at least 100 mph.
De La Cruz now has nine doubles and 15 total extra-base hits on the season. Six of those extra-base hits — four doubles and two home runs — have come in his past four starts to improve his slugging percentage from .336 to .404 in the span of a week.
Garrett Cooper added a two-run home run — his seventh of the season — in the eighth inning before the Marlins manufactured another run in the ninth with a Jacob Stallings sacrifice bunt scoring Billy Hamilton, who stole second and got to third on a Rojas flyout after coming in as a pinch-runner for Garcia.
It was more than enough to back a strong if not short start from Pablo Lopez, who limited the Mets (52-32) to just one run — a Brandon Nimmo solo home run — over five innings.
Dylan Floro, Anthony Bass, Steven Okert and Tanner Scott combined for the final four innings, with Scott picking up his 11th save in the process.
The Mets added just one run in those final four innings on a Francisco Lindor home run against Okert in the eighth. New York loaded the bases later in the inning on a hit by pitch and back-to-back walks but all three runners were stranded when Eduardo Escobar hit a high flyball into shallow center field for the third out of the inning.
