New York Mets vs Miami Marlins Box Score on Sep 20, 2023

Kodai Senga pitched six strong innings, and South Florida-raised Mark Vientos belted two solo homers as the New York Mets played spoiler, defeating the host Miami Marlins 8-3 on Wednesday night.

Brandon Nimmo had a homer, double and a single, scoring three runs for New York.

Mets right fielder Jeff McNeil made two sensational fielding plays in the fifth. First, with the help of second baseman Ronny Mauricio's relay, he threw out speedy Jazz Chisholm Jr. trying to stretch a single into a double. Then, McNeil threw Jorge Soler out at the plate on a perfect one-hop throw.

The Mets (71-81), who are out of playoff contention, won two of three games in the series.

Miami (79-74), bidding for an NL wild-card playoff berth, played its second straight game without second baseman Luis Arraez, who leads the majors with a .354 batting average. He has a sprained left ankle.

In addition, the Marlins lost third baseman Jake Burger in the third inning. Burger felt right-quad tightness while chasing an errant throw.

The Mets also had an injury as outfielder D.J. Stewart was scratched due to an apparent wrist injury.

Senga (12-7), a standout MLB rookie after playing pro ball in Japan from 2012 to 2022, allowed seven hits, two walks and two runs with three strikeouts. It was his 15th straight start allowing three earned runs or fewer.

Vientos, playing just his fourth MLB game in his home area, had his first multi-homer contest.

Marlins rookie Eury Perez (5-6) went three innings and took the loss, allowing three hits, three walks and three runs (two earned).

New York opened the scoring in the second inning on Vientos' first homer.

In the third, Nimmo walked and scored from first on Mauricio's single and a pair of throwing errors -- right fielder Jesus Sanchez to third and third baseman Burger to home. Mauricio took third on the play and then scored on Pete Alonso's sacrifice fly for a 3-0 Mets lead.

Miami cut its deficit to 3-1 in the fourth when Bryan De La Cruz singled and scored on Garrett Hampson's sacrifice fly.

In the sixth, Vientos and Miami's Josh Bell exchanged solo homers, leaving the Mets with a 4-2 lead.

The Mets stretched their lead to 6-2 in the seventh on a rally that started with Nimmo's double and Mauricio's walk. Alonso hit an RBI single, and Francisco Lindor added a run-scoring groundout.

Mets rookie Brett Baty belted the longest shot of the night -- a 440-foot homer to the upper deck in right -- to make it 7-2 in the eighth.

Miami trimmed the deficit to 7-3 in the bottom of the eighth on Yuli Gurriel's pinch-hit single.

But the Mets got that run back in the ninth on Nimmo's homer.

--Field Level Media