Stanton heating up, Marlins cooled off

NEW YORK -- The past two nights Giancarlo Stanton provided the power early, but the Marlins still are having trouble establishing any consistency.

It was more of the same on Friday night as the Mets, behind Bartolo Colon's seven strong innings, tripped up the Marlins, 4-1, in front of an energized 38,753 at Citi Field.

Stanton, who homered in the first inning for the second straight night, acknowledges something is missing right now from a Miami team that has slipped to 3-8.

"We're not really giving ourselves a chance, it feels like," Stanton said. "We've got a positive vibe, but [something] is just not there. The fire is not there, it seems like. You always want to have it. But when you're out there, and it's game time, it's just nothing there -- it seems like."

Miami has dropped the first two of four to the red-hot Mets, winners of six straight. After each of Stanton's first-inning homers, the Mets each night seized momentum in the mid to late innings.

"The game is nine innings," Stanton said. "It's not two, three. It doesn't matter if it's the fifth through the seventh, or the seventh through the ninth. It's not two innings, it's nine. We're not playing nine."

Stanton has homered in five straight games against the Mets, dating back to last September. In terms of Mets' history, Stanton, Ryan Howard and Hank Aaron are the only players to have homered off New York in as many as five consecutive games.

Right now, the numbers Stanton is looking at are 3-8, the team record. Words won't turn things around.

"There is no campfire to sit around and reminisce on things," the slugger said. "We've got to play every night. We've got to go. The work is there. The process, we need to pick up."

Manager Mike Redmond noted that the Mets and Marlins each had seven hits. The difference is New York made its count more.

"Other than Giancarlo's home run, we really couldn't get anything going off Bartolo," Redmond said. "Give him credit. These guys right now are hot. They're making every play. We had the same amount of hits, but their hits are bigger. And they're doing it with guys in scoring position."

Miami's task isn't getting any easier with the Mets running out Jacob deGrom on Saturday and Matt Harvey on Sunday.

"We've got to get it done," Stanton said. "There is no, 'Hey, this is going to make us click now. This is going to do it for us now.' We've got to go. There is no time for that."