Mets Win Again, One Game Away From Wild Card

METS 7 - MARLINS 2 

As DJ Khaled once rapped "All I do is win, win, win no matter what ...", because that is exactly what the New York Mets are doing lately. The Mets are winning, winning and winning some more, their sixth in a row in fact, and 13th 'W' in their last 14 games after downing the Miami Marlins 7-2.

The victory cemented a sweep of the four game series, the first four game sweep of the Marlins by the Mets in four years.

Since the All Star Break the Mets are 19-6, three games over .500 at 59-56. And the find themselves just one game out of a wild card slot.  That is an amazing accomplishment for a team that languished in mediocrity for almost the entire season.

The Mets are playing with so much confidence right now, there was no doubt that they would sweep this series, and do so going away.

As has been the case lately the Amazin's used the long ball to distance themselves early and often from Miami.

Pete Alonso's two-run jack to left center put the Mets up 2-0 in the bottom of the first inning, and they never looked back as all seven runs the Mets scored on Wednesday were via the home run.

Michael Conforto had a huge afternoon for New York, belting two homers and driving in three. The Mets center fielder now owns 25 homers and 64 RBI on the season. Since the Break, Conforto has watched his batting average rise 20 points, and has belted 7 homers, while driving in 17. He has been unbelievable in this stretch.

It was Conforto's two-run shot to the right field corner that gave the Mets a 4-1 lead Wendesday. He would follow that up with a solo blast to left in the bottom of the seventh.

Even Jeff McNeil, who has been hitting homers all over the place of late, connected on his 15th of the year to to center as the Mets built an insurmountable five-run advantage.

All the runs went to the good of starter Steven Matz. Matz was steady Wednesday, yielding two runs on seven hits while striking out seven in 6.2 innings of work. The victory improved Matz's record to 7-7 on the season with a 4.49 ERA.

Even the Mets bullpen has been stellar in this stretch. The combination of a Justin Wilson, Jeyrus Familia and Luis Avilan shut down the Marlins over the final 2.1 innings of play without giving up a run.

Now the competition gets a little bit tougher on paper, but the Mets sound ready for the challenge that is ahead of them. New York will face the Washington Nationals, one of the two teams they are chasing in this wild card race, on Friday in the first of a three-game series. It will be rocking at Citi Field for sure as Marcus Stroman makes his Citi Field debut against Stephen Strausberg.