MIAMI – The New York Mets issued nine walks and it eventually caught up to them.
Giancarlo Stanton hit his 37th homer, and Rob Brantly hit a tiebreaking RBI double in the eighth inning to help the Miami Marlins beat the New York Mets 3-2 Monday night.
In the bottom of the eighth, Ramon Ramirez (3-4) allowed a leadoff walk to Carlos Lee and then allowed Lee to reach second on a wild pitch. Brantly followed with a double down the left-field line.
"In a situation with a man on second and nobody out you're hoping you can get a pitch to hit to the right side but with two strikes I'm going to try and battle my AB out and survive and get a good pitch up in the zone," Brantly said. "It was away, but I got a good piece of bat on it."
Mets right-hander Jeurys Familia made his first career start and did not allow a run in four innings. He walked six and struck out three.
"Too many walks," Mets manager Terry Collins said. "Jeurys did a nice job getting out of trouble. Again you saw quality, quality stuff. Certainly there's a lot of work ahead."
Heath Bell (4-5) pitched a scoreless eighth inning and Steve Cishek pitched the ninth for his 15th save in 19 chances. Cishek issued a two-out walk to Fred Lewis before Ike Davis grounded out to end the game, giving the Marlins their second win in 11 games.
"Very nice baseball game today," Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen said. "Very exciting, very well played. We pitched well, we got a couple hits when we needed. We got big hits today. We don't have to pitch a shutout to win games. ... It's nice to see the guys go out there and perform and don't rely on Stanton to do the damage."
The Marlins trailed 2-0 before Stanton's solo home run off Manny Acosta in the sixth. It was Stanton's third home run in four games after missing the previous nine games with an oblique strain.
Jose Reyes hit a sacrifice fly in the seventh to tie the game at 2.
David Wright hit an RBI single in the fifth to put the Mets on the board and pinch-hitter Mike Baxter doubled to give the Mets a 2-0 lead in the sixth.
Marlins starter Wade LeBlanc allowed one unearned run in five innings.
NOTES: Marlins RHP Josh Johnson was expected to start, but was replaced by LeBlanc due to a sore hamstring. ... Mets manager Terry Collins announced that he intends to bring back the entire coaching staff for next season. ... On Tuesday, Mets RHP R.A. Dickey (20-6, 2.69 ERA) will look to improve to 6-0 against Miami this season. The Marlins will counter with RHP Jacob Turner (1-4, 3.86 ERA).
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.