Sean Manaea tossed seven solid innings Friday night as the host New York Mets beat the Miami Marlins 7-3 in the opener of a three-game series between the National League East rivals.
Jeff McNeil and Brandon Nimmo homered in the fourth inning for the Mets, who won for the second time in seven games to ensure they’d remain no more than two games back of the NL’s third wild card, the Atlanta Braves. The Braves were scheduled to play the Los Angeles Angels late Friday night.
J.D. Martinez (single) and Francisco Lindor (triple) also had RBI hits for the Mets. Martinez, McNeil and Nimmo had two hits apiece.
Jake Burger homered for the Marlins, who have lost seven of 10. Xavier Edwards doubled and drew a walk in four plate appearances.
Manaea (9-5) allowed three runs on five hits and one walk while striking out four. He retired eight in a row between the first and the third before the Marlins took a short-lived lead in the fourth.
Derek Hill laced an RBI double and scored from third when Emmanuel Rivera legged out the back end of a potential inning-ending double-play ball for a 2-1 lead. Manaea then set down 10 of the final 11 batters he faced.
Marlins rookie Roddery Munoz (2-7) took the loss after allowing five runs (four earned) on five hits and three walks while striking out five in 3 1/3 innings. He threw the ball away on Nimmo’s two-out dribbler in the first, when Martinez followed with his run-scoring hit.
The Mets chased Munoz in the fourth while scoring six runs and sending 11 batters to the plate. Munoz walked Francisco Alvarez with one out before McNeil homered to right. Harrison Bader walked and Lindor ended Munoz’s evening with a triple down the first base line.
George Soriano plunked the first batter he faced, Mark Vientos. Nimmo followed with his first homer since July 10 to make it 7-2.
Burger’s homer in the fifth, his 24th of the year, capped the scoring.
New York’s Jose Butto threw two scoreless innings in a non-save situation.