Brandon Nimmo drew a bases-loaded walk in the 11th inning Tuesday night as the New York Mets mounted a late comeback and stayed alive in the National League wild-card race with a 5-4 win over the Miami Marlins.
Had the Mets lost, they would have been eliminated by virtue of their defeat and wins earlier in the day by the Washington Nationals and Milwaukee Brewers. New York (82-75) will be eliminated from contention with one more loss or one more win by the Brewers.
The Mets trailed 4-0 entering the seventh inning, when J.D. Davis hit a leadoff double and Michael Conforto followed with a two-run homer. Davis and Conforto teamed up again in the ninth, when Davis led off with a single against Jose Urena and Conforto followed with another homer, to almost the exact same spot in right-center field.
In the 11th, Conforto drew a leadoff walk against Adam Conley (2-10). Amed Rosario was then plunked by Jeff Brigham. With Todd Frazier at the plate, Brigham uncorked a wild pitch before intentionally walking Frazier. Conforto was forced at the plate on a grounder by Wilson Ramos before Nimmo coaxed a five-pitch walk.
Paul Sewald (1-1) threw a perfect 11th inning to earn his first major league win -- in his 119th appearance. The only pitcher with a longer winless streak to start his major league career was Vic Darensbourg (123 games) with the then-Florida Marlins from 1998-2000.
The Marlins (55-102) raced out to a 4-0 lead against Mets starter Noah Syndergaard. Isan Diaz homered leading off the second. Austin Dean doubled with one out and scored on a two-out single by Jon Berti.
The Marlins added single runs in the third and fifth on RBI singles by Diaz and Jorge Alfaro, respectively.
Berti, who had a career-high four hits Monday night, collected three more hits Tuesday and tied a single-game team record with four steals Tuesday. The Marlins finished with six steals in seven attempts.
Syndergaard gave up the four runs on 10 hits and no walks while striking out seven over five innings.
Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara carried a shutout into the seventh. The All-Star right-hander gave up six hits and walked none while striking out six over seven innings of two-run ball.
--Field Level Media