Game #134: Mets 5, Marlins 1

(NYDailyNews.com)

Swab the deck, me mateys: we're sweeping up some fish now!

Jason Bay's 1st inning grand slam provided the difference and Chris Young and the bullpen strung together a fantastic day on the mound, giving the Mets the win and the sweep over the Marlins, 5-1.

The Good Stuff:

• It didn't take long for New York to solve Miami's Mark Buehrle: Ronny Cedeno and Justin Turner led off the game with doubles and Cedeno was driven in by a David Wright groundout.
• After Scott Hairston popped out, Ike Davis walked and Kelly Shoppach was hit by a pitch. Up came Jason Bay, reduced to a part time player, making his first start since August 25. Met fans probably didn't get their hopes up, but Mr. Bay proved he still has a little left in the tank, launching a grand slam to right center to effectively end the game before the Marlins even came to bat.
• Bay went 2-4 on the day to increase his batting average to .160 and, as Walter Villa of ESPN New York points out, equaled his offensive production (1 HR, 4 RBIs) for the past month in one swing.
• This was more offense than Chris Young is probably used to getting in a month's worth of starts, but Young gladly took the gift of lots of wiggle room to pitch 5 strong innings of 1-run, 5-hit ball to pick up the W.
• The team then stared down the prospect of having the bullpen pitch 4 innings, but the men in the relief role once again did not disappoint: Bobby Parnell, Josh Edgin, Jon Rauch, and Frank Francisco nailed down the storm windows and allowed just 1 more hit the rest of the way. While it wasn't a save situation, Frank-Frank did his job more than adequately in the 9th, needing only 11 pitches to close out the Marlins.

The Bad Stuff:

• While the offense was great in the 1st, the unit was basically shut down for the rest of the afternoon. Buehrle ended up pitching 7 innings, needing only 1 more pitch to get through that than Young needed to get through 5.
• David Wright went 0-4, dropping his average down to .314.

Final Analysis:
Talk about Labor Day fun in the sun. Everything came together for the Mets this weekend in Miami, as great starting pitching, solid relief, and clutch (if not abundant) hitting combined to give New York its first sweep since June 18-20 against Baltimore. While Chris Young probably won't be back in the rotation next April, he made a case for one of the long relief roles alongside Jeremy Hefner. Jason Bay showed the best way to use him is to do so like sweets at the top of the food pyramid: sparingly. All-in-all, a great weekend to be a Mets fan, and a great way to begin the home stretch in pursuit of 3rd place in the NL East.

MM