Edwin Diaz falters again as Marlins beat Mets in 10 innings

MIAMI -- Edwin Diaz didn’t blow a save this time. But he still blew the game.

Bryan De La Cruz crushed a game-ending single off the centerfield wall against Diaz in the 10th inning, sending the Mets to a 2-1 loss to the Marlins on Wednesday.

That was the second time in three days that the Mets were on the wrong end of a walk-off, after the Nationals did it Monday. They have lost three of their past five games overall, dropping them to 70-70 but keeping them four games behind first-place Atlanta in the NL East.

"We gotta recover," manager Luis Rojas said. "We can’t hang our heads and we can’t look back. We had some chances tonight once again and we didn’t come up with a win, and that’s it. It was a tough one. But we gotta recover quick."

Michael Conforto said: "We show up tomorrow and we have a chance to win a series."

The Mets could have intentionally walked De La Cruz, a rookie who went 3-for-5 to raise his average to .342, so that Diaz could face Lewin Diaz, a rookie hitting .108, with two outs.

But Rojas said he did not consider that option because he believed in Diaz, whose previous two appearances led to lost leads.

"We always like Diaz. You always trust your closer right there in a matchup, righty-righty," he said. "Diaz’s stuff always plays well. He’s not a guy that gets hit around. The one thing that gets Diaz in trouble is his command. We’ve seen that. That’s why we went with the matchup and we trusted Diaz to get De La Cruz in that situation."

De La Cruz got a 1-and-1 fastball on the outer edge of the plate. It came it at 98 mph and went out at 101. Diaz pointed to the ceiling as Albert Almora Jr. chased the fly ball, stopping short on the warning track as it bounced about halfway up the wall to give the Marlins (58-81) the win.

That came after an eventful top of the 10th, which included a Javier Baez fly ball dropped by Jesus Sanchez in rightfield. First-base umpire Chad Whitson ruled it foul, and the call stood upon review.

"It’s really hard to believe that it wasn’t reversed to a fair ball," Rojas said.

Rojas used third-string catcher Patrick Mazeika to pinch hit for James McCann — whom the Mets signed to a four-year, $40.6 million contract less than a year ago — because Mazeika is a lefthanded hitter, while McCann is a righthanded one. Against Anthony Bender, who is more effective against righties, Mazeika gave the Mets a better chance than McCann or J.D. Davis, Rojas contested.

Mazeika, a .197 hitter, grounded out to the pitcher.

The early pitchers’ duel between Rich Hill (six innings, one run) and Sandy Alcantara (nine innings, one run) was an exercise in juxtaposition.

Hill is a 41-year-old lefthander who survives on breaking balls that dip below 70 mph. The righthanded Alcantara turned only 26 this week but is the most established of the Marlins’ stable of starters, and he stifled the Mets with upper-90s four-seamers and sinkers and lower-90s changeups and sliders — offspeed pitches that are faster than Hill’s fastballs.

Alcantara set a personal record with 14 strikeouts, getting every Mets starter except Jeff McNeil at least once. He walked one batter and allowed only four hits, including Conforto’s homer in the seventh. The Mets didn’t have another batter reach third base.

"He was a sinkerballer earlier and then he was a four-seam guy alter as he got a bunch of strikeouts with that pitch," Rojas said. "A guy that has special stuff. One of the best pitchers in the game, I think."

Hill added: "He threw an unbelievable game tonight. Running into hot pitching when you need must-win games is obviously a tough recipe."