Bartolo Colon goes seven innings for Mets and drives in first run in victory
Bartolo Colon of the New York Mets follows through on a fifth-inning game-tying sacrifice fly against the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on Friday, April 17, 2015. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The amazing Bartolo Colon did it again Friday night.
Oh, sure, Colon threw seven brilliant innings for his third victory of the season. And the Mets won their sixth in a row for the first time since April 2011 by beating the Marlins, 4-1.
But what most thrilled the crowd of 38,753 at Citi Field was Colon's second RBI of the year.
It came in the fifth with the Mets (8-3) trailing 1-0 against former Yankee David Phelps, who was throwing a no-hitter until Wilmer Flores singled with one out in the inning.
Flores' hit came after Eric Campbell walked and before Anthony Recker walked to load the bases. Colon confidently strode to the plate as the crowd came to its feet.
Colon, the 41-year-old marvel, went after the first pitch and lined it to center for a sacrifice fly to tie the score.
"Bart's the hottest guy on the team!" manager Terry Collins said. Asked if he was surprised that Colon delivered the RBI, Collins said: "I was. I'm surprised when he swings."
The Mets took the lead in the sixth on three consecutive hits against lefthander Brad Hand.
After Juan Lagares singled, Lucas Duda stroked a hit-and-run single to center, his fifth hit in nine at-bats against lefties this season. Michael Cuddyer followed with a tiebreaking single off the glove of first baseman Michael Morse.
After Daniel Murphy's soft grounder to second moved the runners up, Campbell delivered a sacrifice fly to make it 3-1.
Cuddyer and Murphy hit back-to-back doubles in the eighth for the Mets' fourth run.
The Marlins took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Giancarlo Stanton homered to right-center. Miami's $325-million slugger has homered in five consecutive games against the Mets dating to last season.
The home run appeared to be the second this season that would not have been out of Citi Field before the Mets moved in the fences in right-center. The first was by Murphy.
Lagares, who received his 2014 Gold Glove before the game, ran down Adeiny Hechavarria's drive to left-center to end the second with a runner on second. He also made a leaping grab to rob Christian Yelich of an extra-base hit in the third.
The Marlins had runners on first and second in the seventh when Lagares came in on a ball hit by J.T. Realmuto and made a diving catch for the second out.
Hechavarria followed with a dribbler to the right of the mound that Colon corralled and fired to first to end the inning.
Colon (3-0, 2.25 ERA) allowed six hits with no walks and five strikeouts. Jerry Blevins threw a 1-2-3 eighth and Jeurys Familia allowed a two-out single but struck out two in the ninth for his fifth save.
"I just think everybody's caught up in it," Collins said. "It's very, very, very early. When you've got [151] games left, that's a lot of games. But we're very excited about the way we've started and to get our fan base excited -- great crowd tonight. The guys got all fired up about it. It was fun."
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
