10 INNINGS
Marlins3
Mets 2
MIAMI – On Friday, Armando Benitez did the job against his former team. Last night, Braden Looper couldn’t match that performance.
Facing his former Marlin mates for the first time since joining the Mets as a free agent this offseason, the Met closer served up a walk-off homer to Mike Lowell in the bottom of the 10th inning.
The Mets lost their second straight one-run game to the Marlins, this time 3-2.
Looper actually entered the game in the ninth inning and threw a scoreless frame to keep the score tied. He allowed Alex Gonzalez’s one-out double in the ninth but retired Mike Mordecai and Luis Castillo to quell the threat.
Looper then got the first out in the 10th. But on a 1-0 pitch, Lowell cracked his 14th homer of the year, a monster 375-foot drive deep into the leftfield stands. All Looper could do was stare at the blast and walk slowly off the mound, his head down in dejection.
The Mets’ 12-game stretch against the Phillies and Marlins was billed as crucial to the Mets’ proving they were serious about competing for the NL East title. But after winning their first game against Philly, the Mets (23-25) have now lost three straight. And they have to face Josh Beckett this afternoon to avoid a sweep by the Marlins.
The night got off to an ugly beginning for the Mets, as they watched Cliff Floyd and Mike Cameron collide while chasing Jeff Conine’s first-inning drive. Floyd would leave the game and be diagnosed with a contusion to his left quad – he strained his right quad earlier this year – and is now day-to-day. Cameron stayed in the game with a shoulder bruise.
Jae Seo, too, got off to a horrible start, struggling mightily with his command. In the first inning, he walked leadoff man Castillo. Then he walked the next man, Juan Pierre. And then the man after that, Lowell. Suddenly, it was bases loaded with nobody out.
Probably the only thing that saved Seo from total disaster here was that Miguel Cabrera, normally the Marlins’ cleanup hitter, was out with a hamstring twinge. That left the cleanup duties to Lenny Harris, and he promptly grounded into a 4-6-3 double play.