A.J. Ewing went 3-for-5 with three RBIs and fellow rookie Jonah Tong earned the win in his first major league start of the year as the New York Mets defeated the host Miami Marlins 9-4 on Monday afternoon.
The Mets (66-78) got a go-ahead single from Bo Bichette in the fourth inning as New York sent Miami (72-73) to its fourth loss in the past five games.
Tong (2-1), who was recalled from Triple-A Syracuse hours before his start, lasted five innings, allowing four hits, one walk and four runs. He struck out seven.
Graham Pauley slugged a three-run homer off Tong to lead Miami.
Eury Perez (7-11) took the loss, allowing a career-high 10 hits, three walks and seven runs (five earned) in four innings. Over his last three starts, Perez has pitched 11 2/3 innings while allowing 21 hits, 10 walks and 18 runs (16 earned) for a 12.34 ERA during that span.
New York opened the scoring in the first with a pair of unearned runs on just one hit, a single by Juan Soto. The Mets scored their first run on a throwing error by second baseman Javier Sanoja, who won a Gold Glove last year as a utility player. The second run scored on a throwing error by catcher Joe Mack.
The Mets made it 3-0 in the second. Brett Baty delivered an opposite-field double and scored on Nick Morabito’s single.
But the Marlins took a 4-3 lead in the second as Sanoja ambushed Tong with a first-pitch RBI triple, and Pauley followed two batters later with his three-run homer on a 1-2 fastball, pulling it 372 feet over the fence in right.
The Mets tied the score in the third as Marcus Semien led off with a double and got to third on a single from Ewing before scoring on Francisco Alvarez’s single past a drawn-in infield.
New York took a 7-4 lead in the fourth as Bichette rocketed an RBI single and Ewing stroked an opposite-field two-run double down the line in left.
The Mets made it 9-4 in the sixth, getting RBI hits from Semien (double) and Ewing (single). New York closed the game with four scoreless innings from its bullpen.
