Marlins play spoiler at Mets (despite Bleier’s balk bonanza), but Cooper fractures finger

At the end of the best and healthiest season of his career, Garrett Cooper’s awful injury luck struck again Tuesday when he fractured the pinkie on his left hand in the fifth inning of the Miami Marlins’ 6-4 win against the New York Mets.

Cooper got hit by a pitch on his left hand in the top of the fifth inning and immediately went out of the game. X-rays revealed a fracture in his fifth metacarpal, the Marlins announced.

Trevor Williams tried to pitch Cooper high and inside, and the Mets pitcher’s 92-mph fastball got away from him, plunking the All-Star slugger on the outside of his hand. Cooper hopped up and down in pain, and immediately headed back to the visitors’ clubhouse at Citi Field, replaced by rookie Charles LeBlanc as a pinch runner.

Miami (64-90) went on to score two runs in the inning, when catcher Jacob Stallings drove in third basemen Brian Anderson and LeBlanc.

Cooper was playing in his 119th game of the season — a career high — and set a new career mark with his 108th hit of the year to load the bases in the Marlins’ two-run top of the first inning. He has also already set new career bests with 44 extra-base hits and 172 total bases.

After playing only 105 total games in the last two seasons, Cooper stayed uncharacteristically healthy throughout 2022, missing just 10 days in July and August after getting hit by a pitch on his right wrist, and another 10 in August with a concussion.

Cooper has been on the injured list eight times since getting traded to Miami from the New York Yankees in 2017, injuries have twice prematurely ended his season in 2018 and 2021.

“It’s almost comical at this point,” Cooper said in July of his injury luck.

Cooper, however, got the through entire first half of the season without an IL stint — aside from a quick trip to the COVID-19 IL — and the result was the first All-Star berth of his career, making the 2022 MLB All-Star Game as a designated hitter.

The National League’s addition of a DH for the first time this year — excluding the COVID-shortened 2020 MLB season — turned out to be a boon for Cooper, who batted .283 with 21 doubles, seven home runs and a .783 on-base-plus-slugging percentage before the All-Star break. Although he tailed off in the second half, Cooper still entered this quick two-game series against the Mets (97-58) in New York as the Miami’s most productive hitter with a .260 batting average and .750 OPS.

Cooper remains under team control through next season and will be eligible for arbitration in the offseason. He’s due to become a free agent after the 2023 MLB season.

Pablo Lopez, Marlins play spoiler

Pablo Lopez is poised to finish his season on a high note after a third straight solid start, helping the Marlins play spoiler against World Series-contending Mets.

The starting pitcher gave up three earned runs on five hits in six innings, and all three of those runs came on a home run by star first baseman Pete Alonso. He outdueled Mets starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco and dropped the Mets in to a tie for first place in the NL East with the Atlanta Braves, leaving the crowd of 29,067 agitated at a missed opportunity.

Lopez’s ERA climbed past 4.00 after an awful outing against the Mets on Sept. 10 and since then he has responded with three straight quality starts.

It’s a good sign for the 26-year-old Venezuelan, who spent much of the first two months among the Majors’ ERA leaders before struggling throughout June, July and August.

The right-handed pitcher should start once more this year and has a 2.79 ERA in his last three starts.

Richard Bleier’s bizarre balk bonanza

Richard Bleier entered Tuesday without a single balk in his Major League career.

He ended the day as the MLB’s leader in balks this season.

The relief pitcher committed three balks in a single at-bat in the bottom of the eighth inning Tuesday, sending All-Star second baseman Jeff McNeil home all the way from first base. Bleier got more and more agitated as the inning went on, and manager Don Mattingly coming to his reliever’s defense.

McNeil’s run cut Miami’s lead to 6-4, but Bleier eventually got out of the inning without any further damage, then got ejected himself for arguing as he went back to the dugout.

Up next

The Marlins wrap up their quick two-game series in Queens on Wednesday at 7:10 p.m.

Pitcher Jesus Luzardo will take the mound for Miami against Mets starting pitcher Taijuan Walker.