Major League Baseball

Marlins waste solid effort by Buehrle

Published Apr. 26, 2012 4:50 a.m. ET

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For the second straight night, the Marlins mustered little against Mets pitching. Miami manager Ozzie Guillen can't decide if New York's pitchers are that good or if his team is in that deep an offensive funk.

David Wright hit a go-ahead two-run homer to become the Mets' career RBIs leader and spoil a solid start for Mark Beurhle, leading New York to a 5-1 victory over the Marlins on Wednesday night.

''I don't know if we be facing great pitching or it's a combination of good pitching and bad hitting. Maybe if we (had) come in another situation where we swinging the bats well, we make those guys look like nothing,'' Guillen said. ''But right now, everybody look like Cy Young on the mound.''

The Marlins have lost four straight while scoring a total of four runs in that stretch.

Jose Reyes singled with one out in the Marlins' eighth for his first hit against his former team in eight at-bats, eliciting yet another chorus of lusty boos from the crowd that once adored the ever-smiling shortstop. It was one of six hits for Miami against R.A. Dickey and four relievers.

''I don't know if we're pressing or taking it too lightly, on the field, at least. It seems like we're lackadaisical on the field, and when it's crunch time, pressing or whatever you want to say. But we're not getting the job done,'' said Giancarlo Stanton, who hasn't homered in 58 at-bats this season. ''No one's not giving effort, but that sense of urgency without panic isn't there.''

Lucas Duda had an RBI single and pinch-hitter Mike Baxter hit a two-run double in the eighth for the Mets.

Wright's homer gave him 735 RBIs and broke a tie with Darryl Strawberry for the team lead.

''It's just a testament of his fortitude,'' Dickey said. ''That's fun to watch as a teammate.''

In contrast to the matchup of aces Johan Santana and Josh Johnson on Tuesday night that the Mets ended up winning 2-1, Dickey (3-1) and Buehrle (1-3) rarely reached 85 mph on the scoreboard radar. Dickey allowed three hits and a walk, and struck out seven.

Both starters were hurt by the homer, though.

Omar Infante connected in the fifth for the Marlins' second hit and Wright in the sixth, the Mets' fourth hit of the game. Wright had matched Strawberry a week ago on the club's RBIs chart. Infante has five home runs this year.

Jon Rauch gave up a one-out hit in the eighth to Reyes with the Mets ahead 2-1. Having seen what the dynamic speedster could do on the bases might have spooked catcher Josh Thole. On a called third strike of Hanley Ramirez to end the inning, Thole threw down to second where no one was covering - his teammates were running off the field.

With the weather more to his liking, Dickey bounced back from a horrid outing in rainy Atlanta in which he gave up three homers and eight runs in 4 1-3 innings.

''In that situation with Atlanta, I could put it on something,'' Dickey said of his lack of command. ''I had a good knuckleball (Wednesday).''

After breezing through the first 4 1-3 innings this time, allowing only a hit that nicked off the glove of diving third baseman Wright, the knuckleballer gave up a homer to Infante.

Infante connected to deep left, ending a string of 10 straight outs for Miami. Reyes was right there at the top step of the Marlins dugout to greet the second baseman with one of his elaborate handshakes that Mets fans loved to see when he was playing in Queens.

The homer snapped Miami's stretch without an earned run against Dickey at 24 innings. He was 3-0 in three starts against the Marlins last season, allowing only one unearned run.

Dickey had a 1-2-3 sixth, then Buehrle hit Kirk Nieuwenhuis with a pitch leading off the bottom half. With two outs, Wright sent a drive to center field that cleared the new fences - but would've hit the old green-black wall - to make it 2-1.

''I'm more frustrated by the 0-2 (pitch) to Nieuwenhuis, hitting him,'' Buehrle said. ''Any time you're 0-2 on somebody and you put him on free, an 0-2 walk him or 0-2 hit `em, that's never good.''

Wright was 2 for 20 before that homer.

''It means a lot under the circumstances,'' said Wright, who got the milestone ball. It's nice to be able to do it in that fashion, winning the game and most importantly carrying in some momentum going into (Thursday).''

Buehrle was facing the Mets for the first time in a 12-plus year career spent entirely with the Chicago White Sox until signing a free-agent deal this winter to follow his former manager to Miami. Pitching on six days' rest, he gave up five hits and two runs.

Buehrle got some help from Gaby Sanchez in the fourth. With a runner on first and two outs, he made a diving stop behind first base on Duda's sharp grounder to end the inning.

NOTES: Infante is hitting .390 (39 for 100) at Citi Field, the highest average for aany player (minimum 75 at-bats) since the ballpark opened in 2009. ... The Mets had no new news on pitcher Mike Pelfrey's right elbow. The team sent the MRI results to Dr. James Andrews for a second opinion. After the game, manager Terry Collins said he forgot to ask.

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