MIAMI — Adam Ottavino has been an ace in the Mets bullpen lately, but he couldn’t avoid getting stung in Sunday’s ninth inning.
Nick Fortes launched a two-out, walk-off homer against Ottavino, sending the Mets to a 3-2 loss to the Marlins at loanDepot park. The Mets wasted an opportunity to sweep their first road series of the season.
Moments after Luis Guillorme fully extended to rob Jesus Aguilar of a hit, Fortes launched an Ottavino slider over the left-field fence to begin the Marlins’ celebration. Ottavino had allowed only one earned in his previous 19 appearances.
“It was inside, it wasn’t even a strike and I tried to slide step after the first slider and it got ahead of my hand,” Ottavino said. “That’s kind of what happened out of the hand, hoping he didn’t swing, but not the case.”
Ottavino was the obvious choice for manager Buck Showalter in the inning with Edwin Diaz unavailable because of recent usage. Seth Lugo was Showalter’s other primary option for the ninth. Ottavino’s recent surge had included nine straight appearances this month without a run allowed.
“I don’t want to lose the game for the team, but personally it’s a blip, a bump in the road,” Ottavino said. “I am not going to lose sleep over it individually, it just sucks to lose for the team.”
In the eighth, J.D. Davis reached scoring position on a wild pitch as the go-ahead run for the Mets, but Eduardo Escobar, Guillorme and James McCann were retired in succession. Escobar struck out, failing in moving the runner to third with nobody out.
It continued a rough stretch for the veteran third baseman, who is 5-for-44 (.114) over the last two weeks.
“It seems like every borderline pitch to him is a strike,” Showalter said. “He is playing the heck out of third base for us. He is a force on the field and off, but we are not even halfway there. It bodes well for the rest of the season if at some point [Escobar] can get it going.”
David Peterson provided his team with a second strong start against the Marlins in less than a week. The left-hander, who is awaiting paternity leave for the birth of a son, pitched seven innings and allowed two earned runs on four hits with eight strikeouts and lowered his ERA to 3.10.
It followed a performance against Miami last Monday in which Peterson pitched 5 ¹/₃ innings scoreless. The left-hander’s best work overall this season has occurred on the road, where he has pitched to a 2.17 ERA in six appearances.
On this day Peterson retired 12 of the final 13 batters he faced in completing seven innings for the first time this season. Peterson’s previous high was six innings pitched in a victory at San Francisco on May 23.
Brandon Nimmo homered leading off the third to tie it 1-1. The homer, which cleared the center-field fence, was Nimmo’s fifth this season.
Before the inning was complete the Mets had another run: Starling Marte doubled just inside the third-base line and Pete Alonso hit a bloop over first base for a double that scored Marte and extended Alonso’s MLB lead in RBIs to 69.
Jon Berti’s double leading off the bottom of the first led to the Marlins scoring their first run, on Garrett Cooper’s sacrifice fly. Peterson surrendered a solo homer in the third to Miguel Rojas that tied it 2-2.
Peterson was efficient, retiring the side in order in the fourth, sixth and seventh innings. In the fifth he surrendered a two-out double to Erik Gonzalez before striking out Berti.
The Mets went 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position on a day they managed only five hits against lefty Daniel Castano and the Marlins bullpen.
“I thought early on we had a chance to get something going and not let [Castano] get his feet on the ground,” Showalter said.
