Rally falls short after Richards fans 7

MIAMI -- Trevor Richards can empathize with what Jacob deGrom went through a year ago.

A lack of run support has hurt the Marlins right-hander in both of his 2019 starts. Complicating matters for Richards on Wednesday night was the fact that he was matched with the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner.

Richards allowed three runs in six innings, including a solo home run to deGrom, and the Marlins lost, 6-4, to the Mets at Marlins Park.

The Mets completed a three-game sweep of Miami, which went 2-5 in its first homestand.

On a night when Richards posted his second quality start of the year, deGrom scattered three hits and struck out a career-high 14 in seven innings.

“The story of this one, for me, is we just couldn't get anything going with deGrom,” manager Don Mattingly said. “He pretty much kept us in check all night long. You'd like to at least get some action out there, and put him in harm's way, and be able to scratch out some hits. But we didn't really get anybody in scoring position.”

Richards, who has thrown at least six innings and allowed three runs or fewer in four straight outings dating back to last season, kept his team within striking distance.

“Trevor keeps us in there, keeps us in the game,” Mattingly said. “We couldn't really get anything going until the ninth.”

The Marlins were limited to three hits before the ninth inning, when they chipped back with four runs. Martín Prado and Rosell Herrera each had RBI doubles, and Miguel Rojas had a run-scoring single.

Richards drew the unenviable assignment of being matched with deGrom, who allowed a single to Lewis Brinson in the second inning and a broken-bat single to Brian Anderson in the fourth. Herrera was credited with a double (after it initially was ruled an error on shortstop Amed Rosario) on a misplayed soft popup in the fifth.

“When you've got a guy like that over there, it's tough,” Richards said. “You have to dial it in. You can't make many mistakes. I made a couple. But that's what good teams do. We came back, and battled back, and made a push at the end.”

Throughout 2018, when deGrom won the Cy Young Award, he didn’t have much support. He had 13 starts of seven innings or more allowing no more than one run, and didn’t get a win in eight of them.

deGrom had gone eight straight starts without a win against the Marlins.

“Going into it, I knew -- they scored three runs off me a few times last year,” deGrom said. “My main goal is to just execute every pitch. I had a good game plan going in. We sat down and talked about how we wanted to get them out. [Catcher Tomas] Nido did a good job with me behind the plate tonight.”

While deGrom was dealing, Richards showed growth in his progression, recovering from a two-run third inning in which deGrom homered to right and Pete Alonso blistered an RBI double off the top of the left-field wall.

From that point, Richards retired eight straight before Michael Conforto doubled to open the sixth. Able to work out of trouble, Richards’ night was over after 97 pitches, with 15 swinging strikes.

“I didn't have command of all my pitches,” he said. “A couple got away, here and there. Overall, I had to battle to keep us in the game. I made some mistakes. The goal after that is to minimize and keep us in the game. It was a tough one. But I was able to kind of figure it out and dial it in as I went. It got better as it went on.”

Making things interesting

Limited to three hits and no runs before the ninth inning, the Marlins made things interesting in their final at-bats, scoring four runs. Neil Walker got things going with a leadoff walk, and Starlin Castro singled. Prado came through with a pinch-hit RBI double, and Brinson drove in a run with a groundout. After Herrera and Rojas added their run-scoring hits, the Mets turned to closer Edwin Diaz.

Curtis Granderson flied out to left field for the final out.

“Again, with 27 outs, this team has shown, if you give us opportunities, we're going to fight all the way to the end,” Granderson said.

“I like our club,” Mattingly said. “People will probably think I'm crazy, but I like this club.”