Mets complete second-half collapse with 4-0 loss to Marlins, eliminated from postseason contention

Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News on Sep 28, 2025

Published in Baseball

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MIAMI — The biggest challenge for the New York Mets coming into the 2025 season wasn’t starting pitching, and it wasn’t the NL East.

It was handling prosperity.

For the second year in a row, it came down to Game 162. But unlike last year, there were no heroics, no late-game theatrics and no post-game celebrations. The Mets were eliminated from postseason contention in a 4-0 loss to the Miami Marlins at LoanDepot Park on Sunday afternoon. The Marlins rallied for four runs in the fourth inning off of three different pitchers, and right-hander Edward Cabrera threw five shutout innings.

The Cincinnati Reds clinched the final NL wild-card spot by nature of owning the head-to-head tiebreaker. Both teams finished the season with 83-79 records.

What should have been a prosperous season ended as an unmitigated disaster. A team that led the division by as much as 5 1/2 games on June 12 collapsed to fall out of the race completely. The most expensive payroll in the game, a generational slugger in Juan Soto added to an already-deep lineup, and one of the best closers in baseball in Edwin Diaz, and yet the Mets will be out of action in October.

Amazingly, the Mets went 38-55 after June 12 to miss the playoffs for the second time in three seasons, and the seventh time since 2016, the last year they qualified for the playoffs in consecutive seasons — and still the only time in franchise history the team has reached the postseason in back-to-back years.

They needed help from the Reds and Milwaukee Brewers, and they needed to beat the Marlins. The Brewers did their part with a win. The Marlins, however, made no secret of wanting to end the Mets’ season.

This was evident in the top of the fifth inning. Miami had a 4-0 lead when the Mets loaded the bases on Cabrera. In what could be his final game in a Mets uniform, Pete Alonso smoked a ball 116 MPH off the bat into the glove of Javier Sanoja for the third out. Sanoja was giddy with excitement after making the catch.

The Mets used eight pitchers in the game. Manager Carlos Mendoza planned to be aggressive, sending most of his starters to the bullpen. But the plan backfired in the fourth inning when he removed left-hander Brooks Raley with one on and one out, replacing him with right-hander Ryne Stanek.

A fireballer with a hard fastball, Stanek has been wildly inconsistent this season, especially over the second half of the season. The inconsistencies continued Sunday. Eric Wagaman, the first batter he faced, drove a double to the center field wall to score Connor Norby and break a scoreless tie. Stanek got the second out, but then came more hard contact and another RBI double, this one from Brian Navaretto.

Mendoza went to the bullpen again, this time for right-handed submariner Tyler Rogers — a ground-ball pitcher who is best when brought in for clean innings. It went from bad to worse. Sanoja pulled one down the left side for a triple. Going back to the top of the order, Xavier Edwards singled up the center to score Sanoja.

Closer Edwin Diaz was then brought in to stop the bleeding. He was the sixth pitcher used. Left-hander Sean Manaea started the game, and pitched 1 2/3 innings before the Mets went to right-hander Huascar Brazoban for three outs.

Diaz, who can opt out of his contract this winter, pitched two scoreless innings to give the Mets a chance to come back. They had traffic in every inning, but the Marlins continued to shut them down.

The Mets went the entire season without a comeback win in the eighth inning or later, going 0-70 when trailing in the eighth.

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