BY DAVID LENNON
MIAMI – Maybe the Marlins finally took pity on their spiraling NL East foe because Friday’s game was a gift, plain and simple. The Mets benefited from eight unearned runs, along with Florida’s six errors, and Pedro Martinez was merely adequate in an 9-6 victory at Dolphins Stadium that temporarily put a hold on all of the panic talk.
“They kicked it around a little bit and let us back in the game,” David Wright said. “When you give a team like us four or five outs an inning, we’ll make you pay.”
With the Mets needing to be rescued again, Martinez (3-0) was a flawed savior before the torrential rain cut his outing short at five innings. Martinez had his first shaky performance since his Sept. 3 return in allowing eight hits and four runs, but the Mets took advantage of the Marlins’ miscues to build an 8-4 lead by his departure.
With the lengthy 2-hour, 21-minute delay, Martinez was dressed and waiting for reporters when the clubhouse door opened. Knowing the importance of the win, and the heat manager Willie Randolph has been taking lately, Martinez ended the interview like only he can.
“All right guys,” Martinez said. “Take it easy on Willie. I’m going home.”
The Mets welcomed one Carlos back and lost another on the same night. Carlos Delgado homered in his return from a strained hip flexor – he had been out since Sept. 4 – and Carlos Beltran collected three RBI before he was forced to leave the game with a flare-up of tendinitis in both knees.
It was the Mets’ second win in three nights after a five-game losing streak and the magic number dropped to 8, but their division lead remained at 1 ½ games because the Phillies also beat the Nationals.
“We’re not afraid to add a little drama to it,” Delgado said. “It’s not our choice, but we’ll take it.”
With Billy Wagner’s status in doubt because of back spasms, the bullpen once again did not inspire much confidence. Guillermo Mota retired six of seven in relief of Martinez, but Pedro Feliciano walked the first two batters he faced in the eighth inning before serving up a two-run double to Hanley Ramirez.
The Marlins got the tying run to the plate that inning, but Scott Schoeneweis averted disaster by striking out Jeremy Hermida. With Wagner on the shelf, Schoeneweis stayed in for the ninth and earned his first save since Sept. 26 of last season.
Trailing 3-0, the Mets tied the score in the third inning with the help of errors from Mike Jacobs and Miguel Cabrera. The first run scored on a passed ball, but Mike Jacobs kept the inning alive when a routine throw kicked off his glove and Miguel Cabrera let Beltran’s grounder through his legs to score another run. Moises Alou followed with an RBI single that extended his hitting streak to 25 games, tying Ichiro Suzuki for the second-longest in the majors this season.
The Mets took a 6-3 lead in the fourth inning thanks to Cabrera’s second error, which should have been the second out. Luis Castillo blooped an RBI single to centerfield and Beltran ripped a two-run single. In the fifth, Jacobs booted a grounder for another error that opened the door for Jose Reyes, who drove in two runs before he was thrown out trying to stretch the single.
Martinez didn’t know it at the time, but the fifth would turn out to be his last inning. And it was the same for Beltran, who was forced to leave the game after chasing Hermida’s leadoff double into the centerfield triangle. He spun into the wall twice before tumbling to the ground.
Once on his feet, Beltran limped off. The injury was first announced during the game as a bruised left patellar tendon. But Beltran later explained that the slick rubberized warning track caused him to twist both knees in pursuit of the ball and aggravated his existing tendinitis.
“I felt pain in both knees,” Beltran said. “When I tried to stand up, I had no strength.”
Beltran took anti-inflammatory medication after coming out of the game and was hopeful he would be in Saturday’s lineup. As for the chronic tendinitis, Beltran believes it’s something he needs to get corrected after the season.
“I was saying to [Jose] Reyes, it’s like something is happening to us,” said Beltran, referring to the flurry of injuries. “We just need to continue. Keep fighting and see what happens.”
The Marlins took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but Martinez stranded a runner at second base by whiffing Josh Willingham. Florida made it 3-0 in the second and a large part of that blame went to Paul Lo Duca, who prolonged the rally with a throwing error on Scott Olsen’s sacrifice bunt.
The third inning began terribly for Martinez, but he finished it brilliantly. After he loaded the bases, Martinez escaped with strikeouts of Cody Ross and Olivo. Martinez froze Ross with a 3-and-2 fastball on the outside edge of the plate and got Olivo on three straight curve balls.
“I believe that was the turning point,” Martinez said. “I turned it up a little bit and got the team motivated. That’s what we needed.”