Marlins Begin Series Against Defending NL Champion Mets
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QUEENS (CBSMiami/SportsDirect) – A pair of teams looking to shake a slow start will meet at Citi Field.
The New York Mets will try to awake from an offensive slumber when they open up a three-game series with the visiting Miami Marlins on Monday.
The defending National League champs, who opened 13-3 last year, are 2-3 after a 5-2 home loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday.
The Mets have scored three runs or fewer in four of their five games and produced a total of two runs on seven hits over the final two games of the weekend set, both of them losses.
"If we get this thing going in the direction I think we're capable of, and if you look at the back of these guys' baseball cards, I don't think anybody in here should feel too worried at this moment," third baseman David Wright told reporters. "But, at the same time, let's win some games so we don't have to continuously keep talking about it."
The Marlins dropped a 4-2 decision in Washington on Sunday to split a two-game series that also included a rainout.
Miami was swept four straight in Citi Field last April but won four of the final six games at New York.
TV: 7:10 p.m. ET, ESPN, FSN Florida (Miami), SNY (New York)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Marlins RH Jarred Cosart (2015: 2-5, 4.52 ERA) vs. Mets LH Steven Matz (2015: 4-0, 2.27)
After winning 13 games with a sub-4.00 ERA in 2014, Cosart dealt with a bout of vertigo that derailed his 2015 campaign, forcing him to the disabled list and several starts in the minors.
The 25-year-old flashed his potential with eight scoreless innings against the Mets on April 27 but that was the only game in which he lasted more than six frames.
Cosart, who tossed 9 2/3 scoreless innings this spring, has a 3.00 ERA in four career starts versus New York and has enjoyed particular success against right fielder Curtis Granderson, who is 0-for-11 against him.
Matz doesn't get the attention that others in the Mets' rotation receive, but he is not that far behind after showcasing solid stuff in six major-league starts last year.
He held opponents to two runs or fewer in five of those outings - including a 5 1/3-inning effort at Miami on Sept. 6 - and then did the same in two of his three postseason appearances.
The 24-year-old New York native had a 4.94 ERA and walked 13 batters in 23 2/3 innings during Grapefruit League action.
WALK-OFFS
- Miami LF Christian Yelich homered Sunday and also drew his fifth and sixth walks of the season.
- Granderson is 0-for-16 with four strikeouts in his last four games.
- Mets CF Yoenis Cespedes gave his team all its runs Sunday with a two-run blast and is a career .309 hitter in 12 games against the Marlins.
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