HOWIE RUMBERG
AP Sports Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — With the game tied at 1 in the fourth inning, Marlins manager Mike Redmond went with what he thought was solid strategy: walk the No. 8 batter to face the pitcher.
Even that didn’t go right in a miserable weekend in New York for Miami.
Jacob deGrom had a tiebreaking single and again shut down the Marlins with seven impressive innings, David Wright doubled twice and drove in two runs, and the Mets completed a three-game sweep with a 9-1 victory on Sunday.
“That just sort of sums up how things have been the last four or five days for us,” Redmond said. “Get behind the pitcher and lay one in there and he gets a hit, pretty much sums it up.”
The Marlins head into the All-Star break on a four-game skid. They have lost five of six and dropped behind the Mets into fourth place in the NL East for the first time since being tied with New York on May 4.
The blowout Sunday came a day after they wasted a late lead and lost 5-4.
Miami also lost starter Brad Hand to an injury. The lefty was knocked out of the game with a bruised right shin. He took a sharp grounder off the leg in the fourth and then was removed for a pinch-hitter in the fifth. He is day to day.
Hand yielded three runs and six hits, falling to 1-12 as a starter.
“It is pretty sore right now,” Hand said. “I mean it felt fine the rest of that inning but when I came in and sat down for a little bit, it did not feel very good after that.”
Wright, Curtis Granderson and Juan Lagares each had RBI doubles, and Chris Young added a sacrifice fly for New York in its eighth win on a 10-game homestand heading into the break.
Wright, Young, Lucas Duda and Anthony Recker each drove in a run with the bases loaded in the eighth, a situation the Mets have struggled in all season.
“These guys just stepped it up,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “You can say it, you can think it, but when you actually do it and have success doing it, it changes things.”
New York even benefited from a rare obstruction call for a run in the sixth inning.
DeGrom (3-5) wasn’t quite as sharp as he was when he pitched five-hit ball for seven innings in Miami for his first big league victory on June 21. Still, he had little trouble Sunday in his 12th career start, striking out eight and allowing five hits and a run.
He also produced at the plate.
A .273 hitter (6 for 22) coming in who has batted eighth in the lineup, deGrom got his first big league RBI after Hand (0-2) intentionally walked Ruben Tejada to face the lanky former college shortstop. DeGrom lined a single to center for a 2-1 lead.
“I walked a guy to get to the pitcher,” Hand said. “Thought I could get that guy. Just didn’t work out.”
The Mets were already leading 4-1 when Granderson, who had three hits, a walk and an RBI, led off the sixth with a single.
An out later, Wright hit a sharp grounder over third base. Rounding second, Granderson slightly altered his path to avoid second baseman Ed Lucas. Second base umpire Will Little immediately pointed at Lucas to indicate obstruction.
Granderson raced home but was called out on a close tag play at the plate. Before Collins could post an argument about the out call, Little came in and emphatically gestured toward second base then gave a sweeping safe sign.
“It did not look like he interfered with him to me,” Redmond said. “I mean Granderson is a pretty fast guy, I do not know if I have ever seen that called.”
The Marlins tied it in the fourth thanks to some help from Eric Campbell, who misplayed a fly to medium right field in his first major league start at second base into a double for Garrett Jones.
Marcell Ozuna then beat out an infield single to shortstop for a run.
NOTES: RHP Nathan Eovaldi will likely start the first game for the Marlins against San Francisco in Miami. … The Mets will use RHPs Bartolo Colon, Dillon Gee and Zack Wheeler in the first three games after the break, at San Diego. The rest of the rotation will depend on the health of several pitchers, one being Jonathon Niese. The left-hander threw off the mound for the first time since going on the DL on July 6 with a shoulder strain.
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