Top Marlins vs. Mets games of all-time

The Miami Marlins and New York Mets have an odd rivalry. The players have never seemed to hate each other, the two teams have never faced each other in the playoffs, and they are rarely both good at the same time.

Even so, the Marlins and Mets frequently find themselves producing memorable games when they meet during the regular season. 

Here’s the subjective list that Miami will hope to add to while playing spoiler during the final series of their 2025 campaign.

Marlins Close Down Shea (Sept. 28, 2008)

If I had a nickel for every time the Marlins eliminated the Mets from playoff contention on the final day of the season, I’d have two nickels.

The Marlins delivered the Mets their 12th loss in 17 games on the final day of 2007, keeping New York out of the postseason.

The two were scheduled to conclude the 2008 season as well, which, coincidentally, was the grand closing of Shea Stadium.

A near-sellout of 56,059 gathered in Queens on a brisk September day holding out hope that they’d get one more playoff series in the iconic ballpark. The Mets came into the final game tied with the Milwaukee Brewers for the final National League Wild Card spot at 89-72. 

Florida and New York were tied at 2-2 going into the eighth. The Mets bullpen gave up back-to-back solo home runs to Dan Uggla and Wes Helms in the top of the frame to go down, 4-2.

Marlins relievers Kevin Gregg and Matt Lindstrom shut down the Mets offense for the next two innings, and made Shea’s finale a somber one.

Two consecutive seasons. Two consecutive heartbreaks at the hands of the Marlins.
 

The Rain Delay (Sept. 28, 2023)

Up half a game on the Chicago Cubs for the third and final Wild Card spot with four games to go, the Marlins mounted a ninth-inning comeback against the Mets. As rain began to steadily fall at Citi Field, Miami took a 2-1 lead thanks to RBIs from

Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Yuli Gurriel. With two out in the top of the inning, the rain was too heavy to ignore, and crew chief Alfonso Marquez called for the tarp.

After two and a half hours, the Mets grounds crew began removing the tarp as the rain temporarily let up, but let it lay in left field and never fully put it away. This allowed the drizzle to dampen the infield even further, and for the water on the tarp to completely soak the outfield.

Marlins manager Skip Schumaker was seen on the broadcast trying to help the grounds crew pull the tarp off—perhaps as a way of protest—and having an animated argument with Marquez and the head of the Mets grounds crew to coax them into restarting the game. 

The Mets eventually covered the infield again, and the game was officially suspended at 12:58 a.m., with the Marlins having to be in Pittsburgh for a game later that day at 6:40 p.m. Many players said they didn’t get to sleep until around 5 a.m.

Luckily for the Marlins, they’d clinch a postseason spot two days later against the Pirates. Had they not, they would’ve had to fly back to Queens the day after their Pittsburgh series finale and finish the final inning.

The Adam Greenberg Game (Oct. 2, 2012)

Adam Greenberg has one of the most frustrating stories in the history of this game. In his first major league at-bat in 2005, Marlins reliever Valerio de los Santos accidentally hit the Chicago Cubs prospect in the head. The then-24-year-old fractured his skull and suffered a concussion. He’d deal with vertigo, nausea, and severe headaches for at least another year after the injury. Despite multiple comeback attempts in the minor leagues, he never played another game in the majors.

After multiple fan petitions over the years, the Marlins agreed to sign Greenberg to a one-day contract in 2012 and let him take one final at-bat—this time, against the New York Mets.

Now 31, Greenberg climbed into the box at Marlins Park as 29,709 fans gave him a standing ovation. 

Of course, because nothing in life is fair, he’d have to take his one and only at-bat against R.A. Dickey. The 37-year-old knuckleballer had revived his career with New York, and 2012 would be his peak, leading the league in innings pitched (233 ⅔) and strikeouts (230) en route to a Cy Young victory.

Dickey threw three knuckleballs for a strikeout. 

A team in mourning (Sept. 26, 2016)

This night reminded us that baseball is a fraternal game, despite the bad blood that usually exists between divisional foes.

One day after the tragic passing of star pitcher José Fernández, the Marlins did one of the toughest and bravest things in their franchise’s history: they played a baseball game. 

Both teams stood along the baselines during an emotional pregame ceremony. They then converged in the middle of the diamond, hugging and consoling one another in an unplanned show of solidarity.

From the Mets side of that day, perhaps one of the most touching tributes came from the SNY booth of Keith Hernandez, Ron Darling, and Gary Cohen.

“I was especially struck by the poignancy of the national anthem,” Cohen said. “A song we hear every day. But for a young man who risked everything to be a part of this country it rang especially true today.”

Barely able to speak through visible tears, Hernandez said, “It was just a beautiful ceremony…It’s a tough day.”

Everyone will remember Dee Strange-Gordon’s home run in the first inning, nearly collapsing at home plate in tears after hitting his only homer that year. But the classiness from the Mets organization that night will always hold a special place in my heart.

It really felt like the Mets had entered a new era last year. 

Fresh off a postseason run that took them all the way to the National League Championship Series, they re-signed homegrown talent in Pete Alonso to a two-year extension and stole Juan Soto from the Yankees with a record-breaking 15-year, $765 million contract. 

The underdog Metropolitans who couldn’t stay out of their own way and were constantly second fiddle to their neighbors in the Bronx seemed to be a thing of the past.

The Mets have been in the postseason picture all year, leading the NL East by as much as 5.5 games in June. They lost that lead to the Philadelphia Phillies later that month, but would be neck-and-neck with them until early August, when they lost the lead for good. New York has spent the rest of the season clinging to that last Wild Card spot thanks to an abysmal 20-30 record in August and September.  

Prior to Friday’s series opener in Miami, the Mets hold a one-game lead over the Cincinnati Reds and a two-game lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

All that stands between New York and a postseason spot is the Marlins and 64 years of conceptual proof that the universe hates the Mets.