Marlins Catch Mets (Finally)

This was the kind of performance that gives hope to the Florida Marlins.

Mark Kotsay drove in three runs and the Marlins, showing off part of their promising future, stopped a four-game losing streak Thursday night with an 11-4 win over New York. The Mets had won five in a row.

"These guys have been in the doldrums with the offense," Marlins manager John Boles said. "To swing the bats like that, it's a big morale boost."

Pinch-hitter Bruce Aven hit his first major league home run and Preston Wilson also connected for Florida. The Marlins had been outhomered 9-1 and outscored 43-21 in starting out 2-6.

Coming off a season in which they led the majors with 108 losses, the Marlins gave a glimpse of better things to come. The first six hitters in their lineup were 24 or younger -- not that Boles wants to dwell on age.

"Y-o-u-n-g.' We're not going to talk about that word any more," he said. "We're going to wean them off that.

"The word `young' is going to disappear from my vocabulary," he said. "It doesn't matter if your average age is 30 or 24. These are the big leagues, and you get measured by wins and losses. This is the big-boy world."

Todd Dunwoody set a career high with four hits. Luis Castillo went 3-for-3 with three walks and rookie Alex Gonzalez also had three of Florida's 18 hits.

"It's going to take time to learn how to win at this level," Kotsay said. "But it was a big night for us. It showed we do have guys in the lineup who can hit the ball."

The Marlins scored two runs in the first inning and two more in the second off Masato Yoshii (11), and that was enough for Brian Meadows (2-0).

"I allowed four runs early, and I was trying not to destroy the game," Yoshii said through an interpreter. "But those four runs dictated what kind of game it would be."

Meadows gave up one earned run in 5 2-3 innings and struck out six. The 23-year-old right-hander left with two runners on base and the Marlins leading 6-2.

Braden Looper relieved, and the sidearming 24-year-old struck out Rickey Henderson looking at a 94 mph fastball to end the sixth.

Aven, who played briefly for Cleveland in 1997, hit a two-run homer off Rigo Beltran that capped a three-run seventh and made it 9-2.

Wilson, stepson of Mets coach Mookie Wilson, hit a solo shot in the eighth. Reliever Brian Edmondson added an RBI single.

Kotsay hit an RBI single in the first and a sacrifice fly in the second. His RBI single in the sixth off Josias Manzanillo gave Florida a 6-2 lead.

Robin Ventura singled home a run in the first, giving him a quick start with 11 RBIs. He matched a Mets record by hitting in his 10th straight game at the start of a season, tying Darryl Strawberry (1987), Ed Kranepool (1965) and Rick Cerone (1991).

The Mets closed to 4-2 in the fifth when Rickey Henderson singled, Castillo made a two-out error at second base and Bobby Bonilla singled. Henderson barely slid in ahead of catcher Jorge Fabregas' tag, and Boles questioned plate umpire Ed Montague's call.

Notes

• Mike Piazza took 50 swings in a soft-toss drill before the game. The Mets catcher injured his right knee last Saturday and is on the 15-day disabled list.
• An MRI revealed that Mets reliever Greg McMichael has a partial thickness tear in his right rotator cuff. On the DL since March 21, he is expected to resume throwing in about a week.
• Castillo was hit in the left leg by Gonzalez's foul grounder while leading off third base in the fourth. ... Henderson had been 0-for-9 before getting his first hit for the Mets at Shea Stadium.
• The Mets had not given up 18 hits since last July 9 against Montreal.

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