The New York Mets are in the win column, despite nearly getting no-hit and swept in a doubleheader along the way.
The Mets walked off the Detroit Tigers in the second game of a doubleheader on Thursday, notching their first win after an 0-5 start. The win leaves the 0-7 Miami Marlins as the only winless team in baseball.
For a while, it appeared the Mets would be the lone winless team. At one point Thursday, the Mets were down 1-0 to the Tigers while the Marlins led the St. Louis Cardinals 5-3 entering the seventh inning. The Mets weren’t just losing though, they had already lost 6-3 to the Tigers and were facing the prospect of a combined no-hitter.
Tigers starting pitcher Matt Manning opened the game with 5 2/3 hitless innings (which included four walks), then reliever Tyler Holton took over and took the no-hitter into the eighth inning. However, Mets center fielder Harrison Bader led off the inning with a bloop single to break up the effort.
One inning later, Pete Alonso tied the game in the bottom of the ninth with his second homer of the year:
Then Tyrone Taylor came through with the hit to score Brett Baty (video above), who reached second base on a walk and sacrifice bunt by Starling Marte.
The ninth-inning reversal makes the Mets’ start a little less miserable, though the team obviously still has some things to figure out as it tries to survive in an NL East with the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies. They probably won’t have to worry about the Marlins, who allowed five runs to the Cardinals in the seventh inning and fell short of their first win.
The Marlins are now 0-8, making them the first team to lose eight games in a row to start a season since the 2016 Braves and Minnesota Twins both lost nine straight. Neither of those teams won more than 70 games that season.
It was already a rough day for the Marlins with the loss of Eury Perez for the season as well. Sometimes, a team starts a season and has nothing come easy.
