After a miserable month of June, the New York Mets began July with a win.
The Mets avoided a three-game sweep and got back out of the basement in the N.L. East with a 5-2 win over the Marlins Sunday afternoon at Marlins Park.
Steven Matz got the win to improve his record to 4-5, allowing one unearned in 5 and 1/3 innings, to lower his road ERA to 2.25 for the season.
The only two National League pitchers with at least 40 innings pitched on the road who currently have better earned run averages away from home than Matz are his Mets' teammate Jacob deGrom (1.79) and Max Scherzer (2.05).
With Sunday's win, the Mets are 33-48 through the first 81 games of the season. It is the worst record for the club through 81 games since 1995, when the Mets went 32 and 49.
The Mets dropped into last place in the N.L. East, losing to the Marlins, 5-2, Saturday afternoon in Miami.
The Mets went 5-21 in June, their worst record for that month in franchise history and their third-worst of any month in any season going back to 1962:
July 1963: 4-25 (.138)
August 1982: 5-24 (.172)
June 2018: 5-21 (.192)
>>MORE: Mets To Sign Two Top 30 International Prospects
Marlins rookie Pablo Lopez got the win, allowing two runs in six innings in his major league debut one day after Sandy Alcantara won his first big league start for Miami.
The Mets are now 1-8 against rookie starters this season. Their only win came against Elieser Hernandez and the Marlins, 2-0, at Citi Field back on May 21st.
The Mets lost the opener of the weekend series with the Marlins, 8-2, Friday night.
Corey Oswalt made his first major league start for the Mets after Jacob deGrom was scratched due to a family issue.
Oswalt took the loss, getting knocked out after allowing six runs in the third inning.
Sandy Alcantara, who the Marlins acquired in the trade that sent Marcell Ozuna to the Cardinals, got the win in his first career start.
The last time the Mets were involved in a game that had both the starting pitchers making their first MLB starts was back on May 15th, 2014, when Jacob deGrom started against the Yankees' Chase Whitley.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, with the loss the Mets, who were 12-2 on April 15th, plummeted from 10 games over .500 to 15 games under at an earlier date than any team in major league history.
The Mets lost the rubber game of the series vs. the Pirates, 5-3, Wednesday night at Citi Field.
>>MORE: Injured Noah Syndergaard To Play Simulated Game Tuesday
The Mets' bullpen lost its major league worst 21st game of the season as Pittsburgh scored four times in the top of the 9th inning against Jeurys Familia and Anthony Swarzak.
It was the fifth time this season the Mets lost a game they led in the ninth inning or later, the most in the majors:
6/27/18 Pirates 5 at Mets 3 (led 3-1 in 9th)
5/28/18 Mets 3 at Braves 4 (led to 3-2 in 9th)
5/23/18 Marlins 2 at Mets 1 (led 1-0 in 9th)
4/26/18 Mets 3 at Cardinals 4 (13) (led 3-2 in 10th)
4/21/18 Mets 3 at Braves 4 (led to 3-2 in 9th)
Wilmer Flores' RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning gave the Mets a 4-3 win over the Pirates and put an end to their seven-game losing streak last Tuesday night.
It was the ninth "walk-off" run batted in of Flores' career, tying him with David Wright for the most in Mets history.
Wright also had one career "walk-off" hit against the Pirates, an 11th inning RBI single to beat Pittsburgh, 5-4, on April 29th, 2008 at Shea Stadium.
Happy Recap: Joey June. Jose Bautista hit .250/.434/.536 with three homers and 11 runs batted in this past month as he returns to face the Blue Jays in Toronto for this the first time this week.
Nine Miles of Rough Road: No Yo. Thanks to SNY for these numbers; the Mets records with and without Yoenis Cespedes since he was acquired in 2015:
overall 227-237 .489
in lineup 164-143 .534
out of lineup 63-94 .401
