Bryan De La Cruz gets offense going as Miami Marlins beat New York Mets

Bryan De La Cruz’s recent run of power hitting continued on Friday.

And it played a key role in the Miami Marlins evening up their series with the New York Mets.

De La Cruz hit a career-high three doubles and drew a walk as the Marlins beat the Mets 5-2 at Citi Field.

“I’ve been working really hard to improve my power,” De La Cruz said, “and the power has been showing up lately.”

Friday was De La Cruz’s third three-hit game of the season and the first time in 122 career MLB games that he recorded three extra-base hits in a game. He is the first Marlins player to hit three doubles in a game since Miguel Rojas did so on Sept. 17, 2019.

The first two led to Marlins runs.

His second-inning double to left field — a line drive over left fielder Mark Canha’s head on a full-count against Mets starter Chris Bassitt — scored Jesus Aguilar from second base to give Miami (40-42) an early 1-0 lead. Aguilar had led off the inning with an infield single and moved to second on an Avisail Garcia single.

De La Cruz then led off the fifth inning by sending a first-pitch sinker to the wall in right-center field. He moved to third base on a Rojas single and scored on a Joey Wendle sacrifice fly.

His third double, this time on a full-count curveball in the middle of the strike zone with one out in the seventh, chased Bassitt from the game. De La Cruz once again reached third base on a Rojas single but was stranded when Jacob Stallings hit into a double play.

All three of those hits had an exit velocity of at least 100 mph.

De La Cruz now has nine doubles and 15 total extra-base hits on the season. Six of those extra-base hits — four doubles and two home runs — have come in his past four starts to improve his slugging percentage from .336 to .404 in the span of a week.

“De La, this is probably as good as he has swung it,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “And it’s power all over [the field], too. ... We’ve seen some long home runs in the last few games. He’s been heating up.”

Garrett Cooper added a two-run home run — his seventh of the season — in the eighth inning before the Marlins manufactured another run in the ninth with a Jacob Stallings sacrifice bunt scoring Billy Hamilton, who stole second and got to third on a Rojas flyout after coming in as a pinch-runner for Garcia.

It was more than enough to back a strong if not short start from Pablo Lopez, who limited the Mets (52-32) to just one run — a Brandon Nimmo solo home run — over five innings.

Dylan Floro, Anthony Bass, Steven Okert and Tanner Scott combined for the final four innings, with Scott picking up his 11th save in the process.

The Mets added just one run in those final four innings on a Francisco Lindor home run against Okert in the eighth. New York loaded the bases later in the inning on a hit by pitch and back-to-back walks but all three runners were stranded when Eduardo Escobar hit a high flyball into shallow center field for the third out of the inning.

Elieser Hernandez returns

The Marlins on Friday recalled right-handed pitcher Elieser Hernandez and plan to use him as a long-relief option out of the bullpen.

Hernandez opened the season in Miami’s starting rotation but rarely found success. He pitched to a 6.75 ERA over 11 games (nine starts) and gave up 18 home runs in 48 innings before being optioned to Triple A Jacksonville on June 4.

While in Triple A, Hernandez put up a 2.77 ERA with 37 strikeouts over 26 innings in five starts. He gave up just two earned runs with 25 strikeouts over 15 2/3 innings in his final three outings with the Jumbo Shrimp.

“The last couple [outings] have been good,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “I think just being able to get down there and work without having to worry about every time he pitches and having to answer all the questions was good.”

Hernandez, who has bounced between being a starter and pitching out of the bullpen for the bulk of his career since making his MLB debut in 2018, said being optioned was “not a good feeling, but you’ve got to always overcome bad moments.” During his month in the minor-leagues, Hernandez said his primary focus was working on his efficiency with all three of his pitches — a four-seam fastball, changeup and slider — and regaining his confidence after a rocky start to the season.

“My goal,” Hernandez said, “is just to help the team.”

The Marlins optioned right-handed pitcher Tommy Nance to Triple A Jacksonville to make room on the active roster for Hernandez.

This story was originally published July 8, 2022 at 10:48 PM.

Jordan McPherson

Miami Herald

305-376-2129

Jordan McPherson covers the Miami Hurricanes and Florida Panthers for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and covered the Gators athletic program for five years before joining the Herald staff in December 2017.