Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto homered on first-pitch fastballs from Sandy Alcantara as the New York Mets defeated the host Miami Marlins 7-5 on Tuesday night.
Mets starter Sean Manaea (5-7) was perfect through five innings. His strong first inning — three outs on four pitches — set the tone before he allowed five hits and four runs without getting an out in the sixth.
The Marlins got the tying run to the plate in the ninth against Kodai Senga, but he fanned the last two batters for his seventh save in seven tries.
The Mets (67-78) go for a three-game sweep over the Marlins (72-74) on Wednesday. Since selling off at the trade deadline, the Mets are 20-12. The Marlins, meanwhile, have lost five of their past six games to cripple their wild-card playoff chances.
Lindor led off the game with his 17th homer of the year. Soto hit a three-run shot in the second, his 24th homer of the year, and Brett Baty cracked a solo homer in the third off Alcantara.
Lindor’s homer came on the game’s first pitch. It was also his 35th career homer from the leadoff position.
Alcantara (13-10) took the loss as he allowed seven hits, four walks and seven runs in 4 1/3 innings. The Marlins have lost six straight Alcantara starts.
On the bright side for Alcantara, he reached 200 innings for the season. It’s the third time he has reached that milestone and the first since he had elbow surgery in 2023.
New York opened the scoring with a two-run first. After Lindor’s 405-foot homer to center, the Mets drew two walks. Jared Young then banged an RBI single that nearly hit Alcantara with a 105-mph exit velocity.
The Mets made it 5-0 in the second as Francisco Alvarez singled, Lindor was hit by a pitch and Soto hit his homer 417 feet to center.
Baty’s solo homer in the third traveled 426 feet. He added a sacrifice fly in the fifth to make it 7-0.
Jakob Marsee broke up Manaea’s perfect game with a bloop single leading off the sixth. That was the first of six Marlins hits in the inning, which included RBIs by Jared Serna and Brian Navaretto (doubles) and Otto Lopez and Javier Sanoja (singles) as Miami cut its deficit to 7-4.
Miami threatened again in the seventh, getting runners to second and third with one out against reliever Nate Lavender. But Lavender struck out Kyle Stowers on three pitches and got Heriberto Hernandez on a groundout. Lavender, who made his MLB debut last month, has a 0.00 ERA in 14 innings.
Miami cut its deficit to 7-5 in the ninth on consecutive doubles by Joe Mack and Marsee. But Senga struck out Owen Caissie and Stowers to end the game.
