Salty tater in 10th helps Marlins escape Mets

NEW YORK -- This time, the Marlins were able to make Jarrod Saltalamacchia's home run stand.

Saltalamacchia homered to open the 10th inning on Saturday night, and Steve Cishek locked down the save as the Marlins edged the Mets, 7-6, at Citi Field.

A night after an eighth-inning lead slipped away in a 4-3 loss, the Marlins rebounded with their biggest comeback win of the season.

Miami trailed 5-1 early, but rallied to take a 6-5 lead in the sixth, and eventually it was able to even the three-game set. The win was just Miami's second on the road this season, and it improved the team's mark to 1-2 in extra innings.

"We haven't felt the pressure of, 'Hey, we're on the road, we're out of this,'" Saltalamacchia said. "We haven't felt that, which is a good thing for this team. We keep battling. We've been swinging the bats real well."

Basically, in the first two games at Citi Field, the Marlins and Mets each exchanged emotions. On Friday night, Miami let a game slip away, and the Marlins returned the favor a day later.

One similarity is Saltalamacchia homered to pretty much the same area in left-center in the late innings of both games.

On Friday night, the Miami catcher tied the score at 2 in the eighth, and Garrett Jones followed with a homer that game Miami a short-lived lead. The drive on Saturday came off Kyle Farnsworth.

Cishek, who had his string of 33 straight saves snapped on Friday, got some redemption on Saturday. The right-hander worked around a one-out walk to David Wright and ended it when Bobby Abreu lined out to shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria. It was Cishek's fifth save in six chances.

"I lost some sleep last night," Cishek said. "I was more fired up to get back out there today. I had that feeling like we were going to have another opportunity, and sure enough, we did. It's just disappointing. We should be 2-0 against the Mets right now. We've still got a chance to win the series, and that's the bottom line."

Mike Dunn (2-3) helped get it to Cishek, picking up the win after tossing a scoreless eighth and ninth.

The fact Cishek had a chance to get right back out there played out exactly how manager Mike Redmond hoped.

"When I was coming to the ballpark today, I was thinking, 'Man, we've got to get Cishek back in there,'" Redmond said. "I was hoping, and it looked maybe we weren't early. But I was hoping I would be able to get him back in the game.

"There's nothing tougher for a closer to have a rough night, to have to sit on that for awhile. Thankfully, we battled back and scored some runs."

Before Saturday, Miami's biggest overcome deficit in a victory was three runs against the Rockies on April 3.

Miami's rally was initially sparked in the sixth by Giancarlo Stanton, who belted a two-run homer to give him 29 RBIs, which is one shy of Moises Alou's team record of 30 for March/April.

"That was huge," Stanton said. "But it was bigger to come out with the win. They had tied it up as well. It's easily forgotten, that inning, if we had come out with a loss here. To win in the later innings, that's what we needed."

The Marlins threatened in the ninth off Daisuke Matsuzaka, who walked Donovan Solano to open the inning. Christian Yelich dropped a sacrifice bunt, and he initially was ruled safe at first by umpire Mike Muchlinski. Mets manager Terry Collins challenged, and umpires overturned the call after review.

Marcell Ozuna walked, and Stanton tapped to short for the second out, advancing runners to second and third. Miami was unable to cash in as Matsuzaka struck out Casey McGehee looking on a borderline pitch. Upset with the call, McGehee had a few words with umpire Seth Buckminster.

New York's Jenrry Mejia had a commanding 5-1 lead heading into the sixth inning, before Miami rallied with five runs.

The Mets got to Kevin Slowey for five runs on five hits in five innings. Abreu provided some early damage with a two-run homer in the first inning, and Lucas Duda added a two-out, two-run single in the third.

The Marlins' five-run sixth matched their season high for an inning, now done three times. Nine batters went to the plate, and the inning was propelled by Stanton's two-run homer and Hechavarria's RBI single off Mejiia.

Miami took the lead on Reed Johnson's pinch-hit two-run double off reliever Carlos Torres.

"Make no mistake, these guys are second in the league in hitting," Collins said. "So you gotta make pitches on them. If you get a lot of the plate, they are going to swing."

But Miami's one-run edge didn't last long. New York tied it at 6 in the sixth after Dan Jennings walked Travis d'Arnaud with two outs. Saltalamacchia's passed ball advanced d'Arnaud to second, and Omar Quintanilla's infield single, coupled with Hechavarria's throwing error, enabled d'Arnaud to score the unearned tying run.

Miami got on the board in the second inning on Derek Dietrich's RBI single, which snapped Mejia's scoreless-inning streak at 14 2/3.

"We came back from a deficit and we deserved to win that game," Cishek said. "If it was even more possible to bear down than yesterday, which I don't think there is, I just went out there doing everything to keep that thing a zero."