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Mets claim rubber contest with Marlins

Aug 31, 2008 - 11:12 PM MIAMI (Ticker) -- Once again, the New York Mets were happy to see Scott Olsen take the mound for the Florida Marlins.

Carlos Beltran homered and drove in two runs and Nick Evans added his first career home run as New York posted a 6-2 victory over Florida in a rubber game on Sunday.

The win was a much-needed one for New York, which saw its bullpen cough up a two-run lead after seven innings in Saturday's 4-3 setback. It was the 24th blown save of the season for the Mets, placing them second in the National League.

The win also ensured that New York would hold on to first place in the NL East for at least another day, maintaining a one-game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies, who wrapped up a series at the Chicago Cubs with a 5-3 victory.

"It's important (this win) because they are the two teams behind us," Mets shortstop Jose Reyes said. "The Marlins are a very good young team and the Phillies, it's never easy against those guys. So, we're going to have to take it one game at a time and go from there."

A triumph seemed in good order for the Mets with Olsen taking his turn, as the lefthander entered the matchup with a 1-4 record and a 4.52 ERA in 11 previous starts vs. New York.

Although they quickly fell behind by two runs in the first inning, the Mets had no trouble coming back, as Beltran connected on his 21st home run in the second.

Evans' blast in the fourth tied the score at 2-2 and David Wright followed with a home run directly after as New York went on to improve to 3-2 on an eight-game road trip.

The 22-year-old Evans had began his career with 88 at-bats over 37 games before finally getting a hold of that first home run.

"You always want to hit that first one but it's not something that I was worried about," he said. "The whole thing was exciting, the fact that it tied the game, I got the first one out of the way and the main thing is we won. That's a lot of fun."

The three homers were more than enough for Pedro Martinez (5-3), who allowed two runs and seven hits in six innings for the win.

"Nothing special. Just a quality outing," Martinez said. "Lots of little things that you have to fight with (mentally). I was a little sluggish today but I managed to use my experience and make some pitches and we ended up winning the game."

With Martinez looking solid, the Mets tacked on three insurance runs in the seventh, as Jose Reyes and Ryan Church both delivered an RBI single and Beltran added a sacrifice fly.

Those runs were nearly needed as the Marlins attempted to rally in the ninth, putting runners on first and second with two outs against Brian Stokes. However, the shortstop Reyes was able to snag a hard liner by Jorge Cantu on a diving attempt to end the contest.

Olsen (6-9) finished with six runs and seven hits allowed in 6 1/3 innings to absorb his fifth straight loss.

"They say solo home runs don't beat you," Olsen said. "I don't think that's what the problem was. I just didn't make quality pitches in the seventh inning. I think being down 3-2 at that point, I had to make better pitches in that situation and I didn't do the job."

Luis Gonzalez had three hits, including an RBI double in the first inning, for Florida, which struggled with runners on base in dropping to 11-17 for August.

"We swung the bats and got 10 hits but we left as lot of people on base," Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said about his team's 10 stranded runners. "We got them on the ropes a few times but we just couldn't score."