MIAMI — Miami Marlins reliever Steven Okert entered the game Friday with very little room for error.
Bases loaded. One out in the seventh inning. A one-run lead. Francisco Lindor coming to the plate for the National League East-leading New York Mets.
Okert quickly got ahead in the count 0-2 against Lindor before firing a slider near the bottom of the strike zone. Lindor swung. The ball rolled on the ground to the left side of the infield. Third baseman Jon Berti clutched the ball and threw to second baseman Charles Leblanc, who quickly made the turn to Garrett Cooper at first to complete the inning-ending double play.
Two innings later, the Marlins walked off the field at loanDepot park with a 6-3 win over the Mets to begin a three-game series.
The Marlins improve to 57-80 and have now won back-to-back games for the first time since Aug. 22-23 against the Oakland Athletics.
Okert also pitched a scoreless eighth inning before Dylan Floro pitched a shutout ninth inning for his fourth save of the season one night after he pitched the two innings of Miami’s win over the Philadelphia Phillies.
It backed a solid night from Edward Cabrera. The 24-year-old rookie right-handed pitcher held the Mets (87-52) to three earned runs on five hits and two walks over 5 2/3 innings.
Both walks came in the sixth inning. As did two of the runs on a Pete Alonso home run on a two-out, two-strike slider that caught more of the plate than Cabrera wanted.
Other than that, Cabrera’s only real trouble came in the third inning when he gave up three consecutive one-out hits — a Tomas Nido double, Brandon Nimmo RBI single and Lindor single — before limiting the damage to just one run by getting Jeff McNeil to hit into an inning-ending double play.
It backed another good showing by the offense, fueled by Cooper, catcher Nick Fortes and shortstop Miguel Rojas. Cooper had three hits and reached base in all four of his plate appearances while finishing a triple shy of the cycle. He opened scoring with a two-run home run and also scored on a Fortes double in the fifth. Fortes finished the night with three hits. Rojas had two doubles and an RBI.
Leblanc gave the Marlins insurance runs with a two-run home run in the eighth.
Miami has now recorded at least 10 hits three consecutive games, a first for the Marlins this season.
