MIAMI — The top part of the Mets’ lineup is not in doubt, but the final four is where the questions begin.
Mark Canha proved last season to be a reliable contributor in his first season with the club, and Saturday — as one of those lower-in-the-batting-order options — took it upon himself to carry a lineup that had been manhandled the previous night.
Canha reached base four times and was in the middle of four scoring rallies in the Mets’ 6-2 victory over the Marlins at loanDepot Park. The veteran outfielder’s big day included his first homer of the season, providing a cushion for the Mets’ bullpen.
The Mets will go for the series victory Sunday, when Kodai Senga, in his major league debut, is scheduled to face left-hander Trevor Rogers. In their first look at a left-hander this season, the Mets were dominated Friday by Jesus Luzardo and finished the game with just four hits.
On this day, Canha (3-for-4 with a walk) finished a triple short of the cycle in leading a 12-hit attack. The Mets withstood a choppy start from Tylor Megill and received four combined innings of scoreless relief from Dennis Santana, Drew Smith, Brooks Raley, Adam Ottavino and David Robertson.
Megill survived five innings, allowing two earned runs on six hits and two walks with seven strikeouts.
His pivotal out was his last, in the fifth, when he got Bryan De La Cruz to hit a full-count slider into the shortstop hole that Francisco Lindor gloved backhanded before throwing off balance to first.
With that play, runners were left stranded at second and third, protecting the Mets’ 4-2 lead.
The right-hander Megill has slotted into Justin Verlander’s rotation spot after the Mets co-ace was placed on the injured list with a low-grade strain of the teres major muscle, located near his armpit.
Nick Fortes’ two-run homer in the second accounted for the Marlins’ scoring against Megill, who had at least one runner on base in every inning except the third.
Fortes smashed a fastball over the left-field fence after Jesus Sanchez had walked, to put the Mets in a 2-1 hole.
Canha’s double leading off the second helped the Mets score their first run, on Omar Narvaez’s sacrifice fly. Narvaez’s two-out RBI single in the fourth tied it 2-2 after Canha had led off the inning with a walk.
The Mets’ go-ahead rally in the fifth started on a bloop double to left field by Jeff McNeil, who just beat the throw to second base. Pete Alonso’s ensuing RBI double put the Mets ahead and Canha stroked an RBI single to reach base for the third time in the game.
Canha unloaded to left field in the seventh inning with a 403-foot bomb that gave the Mets their fifth run. In the ninth, Starling Marte stroked a pinch-hit RBI double that extended the Mets’ lead to 6-2.
