MIAMI (AP) - An unlikely candidate stopped the New York Mets’ longest home run drought in more than three years.
Jose Reyes hit a two-run homer, helping the Mets beat the Miami Marlins 4-3 on Sunday.
“It was really good,” first-year manager Mickey Callaway said. “I think Jose has been swinging the bat really well when he’s played lately and it’s good to get him in there when you have to give a guy a day off and he’s been producing for us so it’s been really good to see.”
Reyes’ fourth of the season was New York’s first homer since Jeff McNeil went deep in a 6-4 win against Cincinnati on Monday night. The four-game drought was the Mets’ longest since a six-game stretch from July 19-24, 2015.
Michael Conforto also connected for New York, which took two of three in the weekend series.
“Any time you see the ball go out of the park it feels good,” Conforto said.
Noah Syndergaard (8-2) pitched seven innings while improving to 4-1 in his last five starts. He allowed three runs and seven hits, struck out seven and walked two.
“I felt a lot better mechanically today,” he said. “I worked on it a lot in between starts and today I felt really comfortable out there. I wasn’t really fighting myself on the mound. I really had to dig deep in the seventh inning to get through it.”
Seth Lugo worked around two hits in the ninth while recording his first career save.
Bryan Holaday had two hits and drove in two runs for Miami after he hit a game-ending RBI single in the 11th inning of Saturday night’s 4-3 victory. Rafael Ortega added two hits and swiped two bases in the series finale.
Marlins left-hander Wei-Yin Chen (4-9) allowed four runs, two earned, and four hits in six innings.
“I feel like I could have controlled the game a little bit better than I did out there,” Chen said through a translator. “There’s some parts of it I didn’t do that well. The two long balls kind of hurt the club and that was unfortunate.”
New York jumped in front on Wilmer Flores’ sacrifice fly in the first, but Starlin Castro hit a tying RBI single in the bottom half.
The Mets went ahead to stay in the second, taking advantage of an error by first baseman Derek Dietrich that put Jose Bautista on with one out. After Kevin Plawecki flied out, Reyes hit a drive to left for a 3-1 lead.
“I didn’t really execute that high pitch well and Reyes is pretty good at hitting inside pitches so he did damage on that pitch,” Chen said.
Conforto added a solo drive in the sixth for his 15th homer.
“The Conforto homer was just a slider and I think it just stayed there,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “He got him all day with it, but it’s just one that kind of spun on him.”
Holaday hit an RBI single in the fourth and the sixth.
PRADO WITH RARE STOLEN BASE
Miami’s Martin Prado stole his first base since Sept. 14, 2016, at Atlanta.
“That’s the first time he’s tried to steal in a year I think,” Callaway said. “His leg is almost broken or something.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Mets: 3B David Wright (shoulder/back) played five innings at third base in his first rehab assignment with Single-A St. Lucie and went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts. “He came out of it feeling really good so we’re going to evaluate him when he comes in tomorrow and see what the next step is,” Callaway said.
UP NEXT
Mets: RHP Jacob deGrom (6-7, 1.77 ERA) is the scheduled starter for Monday’s game at the New York Yankees in a makeup contest from July 22. DeGrom has made 15 consecutive quality starts.
Marlins: RHP Pablo Lopez (2-2, 4.32 ERA) takes the mound on Monday to begin a four-game series at Atlanta.
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