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Marlins overcome Reyes' two-homer game, down Mets

May 27, 2008 - 3:53 AM By Larry Fleisher PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

FLUSHING, New York (Ticker) - Largely because the Florida Marlins - and not the New York Mets - reside in first place of the National League East, Willie Randolph had to address his status as a manager earlier in the day.

Luis Gonzalez highlighted a four-run third inning with a three-run double as the Marlins opened a three-game series with a 7-3 victory over the slumping Mets on Monday.

Ricky Nolasco (3-3) allowed three runs on nine hits in five innings for the Marlins, who also were responsible for keeping the Mets out of first last season by posting an 8-1 rout here in the season finale, allowing Philadelphia to overtake them on the final day of the regular season.

That capped the greatest regular-season collapse in baseball history. Florida's sixth win in seven games this season only continued the sputtering play of the Mets, who made news before the game when ownership met with Randolph before the first pitch.

Flanked by general manager Omar Minaya, Randolph received a vote of confidence from his general manager. The loss was the team's seventh in their eight games.

"It's one game," New York third baseman David Wright said. "We're in this thing for the long haul. I would have loved to come out and gotten a win, exploded (and have) kind of a statement game. We weren't able to do that today so we got to go out there and do a better job of doing that tomorrow and go out and get hot.

"We need to prove to ourselves that we're a better team than this and I think once we do (that), we'll have a different attitude."

Monday marked the first time since September 18, 2005, that the Mets are three games under .500 (23-26). Reaching that point has put them 6 1/2 games out of first place just 49 games into the season.

"It's not surprising because we have not played good enough to be anywhere else," New York first baseman Carlos Delgado said. "If you don't play good, you can't expect to be in first place."

Jose Reyes made a first-inning error that led to a pair of unearned runs. However, he atoned for that by homering in his first two at-bats, leaving the Mets with a 3-2 lead through two frames before Mike Pelfrey (2-6) gave it all back with two outs in the third.

With Jeremy Hermida on first, former Met Mike Jacobs walked on four pitches and Dan Uggla was hit by a pitch. Two pitches later, Gonzalez blooped a 1-0 pitch to center field, which put Florida ahead for good.

"I was able to put good pin placement on it," Gonzalez said. "He (Carlos Beltran) tried to make a sliding play and it got by."

Matt Treanor added an RBI single and the Marlins never looked back, moving 10 games over .500 (30-20) for the first time since September 14, 2005. In the process, they collected their seventh win in their last 10 visits to Shea Stadium.

"We're pitching well," Florida manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "We're good enough and got some timely hits."

"I think our first six runs were with two outs, so we got our hits when we needed and made them count," Luis Gonzalez said. "There's a lot of distractions going on right now for that club and for us to score (five) runs after they went up 3-2 and scored those runs - it was big for our club."

Pelfrey labored through four innings and was tagged for six runs - four earned - on six hits.

Jacobs and Uggla also had RBI doubles in the first and those hits came after Reyes booted Jorge Cantu's potential inning-ending groundout for an error.

Other than Reyes' fifth career multi-homer game, there were few highlights for the Mets, who have not been more than three games over .500 at any point this season and are just 77-81 since June 1, 2007.

The Mets also stranded seven and were just 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position for the game. They did not get a hit in the final four frames and also did not put any runners on base as three Florida relievers combined on four perfect innings following Nolasco's exit.

"I thought the energy was good, but they shut us down after that," Randolph said. "We came out swinging the bats. We have to do a better job of sustaining."

Hermida added insurance with an RBI single in the eighth off Matt Wise.