Sloppy fielding, quiet bats sink Mets in 4-2 loss to Marlins

Kodai Senga delivered eight strikeouts over five innings of work, but the Mets’ errors and stimied bats spelled a 4-2 loss to the Marlins on Tuesday night in Miami.

New York managed just one base runner after the third inning until Juan Soto started the ninth inning by working a walk against left-hander Anthony Veneziano. After a fielder’s choice, Brandon Nimmo‘s single brought the go-ahead run to the plate. But righty Anthony Bender came on for Miami and got Mark Vientos to fly out to right and Jesse Winker to ground out to first to end the game.

Here are the takeaways…

– Senga opened up his 2025 campaign by allowing a bullet of a double (99.5 mph off the bat) into the gap in right-center by Xavier Edwards before Kyle Stowers drilled (104.5 mph) for a 421-foot two-run shot to center. The two hits both came on four-seam fastballs (94.4 mph and 93.4 mph) that were up in the zone and right over the heart of the plate.  After the awful first four pitches, Senga’s next 12 got his first three outs, but his career ERA in the first inning went up to 4.65, the highest of any inning. (His ERA in all other innings: 2.60.)

And then Senga started getting everything working. The right-hander’s spooky forkball got back-to-back swinging strikeouts to start the second and then three straight in the third.

The righty worked around a leadoff error in the fourth, but a two-out walk put two on for Graham Pauley. And Senga left a 1-0 cutter right over the heart of the plate and was punished for a two-run double to the gap in left center.

Senga closed his day with a 12-pitch, 1-2-3 fifth inning, blowing a 97 mph fastball past Stowers for his eighth strikeout of the evening.

– Out of the bullpen, Max Kranick entered a lower-stress situation than his first outing of the season and needed just six pitches for a 1-2-3 sixth with a strikeout. The right-hander allowed a pair of hard-hit balls, but 10 pitches saw him through his second perfect inning of the evening. Manager Carlos Mendoza saw no issue with the reliever going back out there and neither did Kranick, who got his third straight perfect frame in the eighth, needing just five pitches.

– Marlins ace Sandy Alcántara looked every bit the real deal again, getting three groundouts against the Mets’ top trio on just nine pitches in the first. While changeups got the two lefties in the first, Nimmo cranked a 2-1 changeup 388 feet for a solo shot to right, 108.3 mph off the bat. Alcántara, working his way back from Tommy John in late 2023, went 5.0 innings with two runs on three hits and four strikeouts.

Nimmo, who added his second homer of the series, finished the day 2-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts looking.

– Luisangel Acuña, getting the start at second against a right-hander ahead of Brett Baty, slashed a ground-rule double to right, going with an Alcántara 98 mph fastball on the outside corner.  Acuña proved he was a plus-plus defender, including making a nifty play fielding a hot shot in the seventh.

Baty would pinch-hit for Acuña to lead off the eighth and grounded out to second in his only at-bat.

– Francisco Lindor, in his return to the lineup after the birth of his first son, was charged with an error in the second but made up for it the next half inning with an RBI single up the middle to past a drawn-in infield to plate Acuña. The hit snapped a 0-for-12 start to the season for the shortstop. The shortstop committed a second error to lead off the fourth. He finished the day 1-for-4 with a strikeout and RBI.

– Soto hit a ball right on the screws his second time up (104.8 mph, 348 feet), but right at the center fielder. He finished 0-for-3, with a walk to start the ninth. The on-base king has now reached base in every game this year.

– Pete Alonso had a quiet day going 0-for-4.

– Luis Torrens showed he was no fool when he nailed the speedy Dane Myers at second base to close the second inning with a perfect throw to Acuña. The catcher looked like he tied the game in the seventh, but his deep drive to center (103.5 mph off the bat) traveled just 394 feet to the warning track.

– Vientos committed a big no-no his second time up when he slowed down about 15 feet from first base on a grounder. Had Vientos run as hard as he did the first 75 feet, he would have easily reached as the Marlins’ third baseman bobbled the ball. Instead, he was out by a half step. He finished 0-for-4.

Game MVP(s): Senga and Kranick

With Senga still building himself back up to his full strength, he showed off a devastating forkball and a good arsenal of pitches to finish his season debut with a final line of 5.0 innings, four runs (two earned), three hits, one walk, and eight strikeouts on 77 pitches (49 strikes).

The two Mets pitchers combined to throw just 99 pitches (66 strikes) on the night. Hard to find too many faults there.

Highlights

What’s next

The Mets wrap up the three-game set in Miami with a late-afternoon first pitch of 4:40 p.m. in Miami before returning home for Opening Day at Citi Field on Friday.

Right-hander Clay Holmes will look to do better in his second start of the campaign. He’ll face off against Marlins righty Connor Gillespie.

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