NEW YORK — The Mets have often been the culprit of some bizarre baseball, but Friday at Citi Field it was the Miami Marlins responsible for the oddities. At least most of them.
Marlins right-hander Edward Cabrera couldn’t find the strike zone but the Mets couldn’t find the ball with the barrel. Still, their patience at the plate paid off in a 9-3 win over the Fish in the home opener.
Nothing went according to plan. The game was moved to Friday because of rain in the forecast, which never came. Instead, Thursday brought sunshine and warm temperatures and by the time the right-hander Tylor Megill (2-0) took the mound Friday, it was gray and chilly.
Speaking of Megill, he wasn’t even supposed to be pitching in the home opener. That honor was given to Justin Verlander, the reigning Cy Young Award winner who was brought in to be one of two aces at the front of the rotation.
Megill was supposed to start the Triple-A opener.
But Megill, the Mets’ opening day starter in 2022, cruised through six shutout innings, scattering only three hits, walking two and striking out three filing in for the injured Verlander.
Meanwhile, Cabrera scattered seven walks.
Cabrera (0-1) was lifted from the game during the third inning down 1-0 with a no-hitter intact. He walked in a run with two outs and was replaced by Huascar Brazoban. But then Daniel Vogelbach sent a dribbler down the right side and the Marlins (3-5) forgot to cover first, allowing the DH to reach safely and Starling Marte to score.
The Mets (4-4) pushed another run over in the fourth by capitalizing on bad defense and bad control by Brazoban. Marte took Matt Barnes deep to the left-center bleachers in the sixth inning to give the Mets a 4-0 lead. The home team then tacked on two runs in the seventh, again loading the bases without even putting a ball in play. Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso belted back-to-back home runs in the eighth off lefty Daniel Castano.
The Mets drew 12 total walks and one batter was hit by a pitch, bringing the season total to a league-leading eight. Nimmo reached four times via base on balls and three other players walked twice.
Two days after giving up a walk-off home run in Milwaukee, Adam Ottavino had a bounce-back outing, going 1-2-3 in the seventh in relief of Megill. Dennis Santana failed to get out of a two-out jam in the eighth, giving up a 408-foot three-run homer to Garrett Cooper, who killed the Mets last weekend in Miami and now has nine home runs against the Amazins’.
Brooks Raley and Denyi Reyes got the last four outs to secure the Mets’ first win in front of a home crowd this season.
