TG Fantasy Baseball

MIAMI (AP) — Newly acquired Alex Jackson hit his first career home run, Nick Neidert earned his first big league win and the Miami Marlins beat the NL East-leading New York Mets 5-4 Tuesday night.

Isan Díaz also homered, Bryan De La Cruz had three hits and Lewis Brinson had two hits and scored twice for the last-place Marlins, who have won the first two of the four-game series.

“We had dicey moments at times but they worked through those dicey moments,” Miami acting manager James Rowson said. “Our guys did a nice job and once again did it as a team effort.”

Home plate umpire Stu Scheurwater ejected New York manager Luis Rojas before the bottom of the seventh after Brandon Nimmo was called out on strikes to end the inning. The Mets have lost five of six and are 8-11 since the All-Star break. Their lead dropped to 1 ½ games ahead of second-place Philadelphia.

“This is a time as a team where as a team you come together as brothers and as guys that understand that we’re going to fight for each other day in and day out,” Mets catcher James McCann said.

For New York, frustrations boiled over when shortstop Javier Báez exchanged words with Marlins reliever Richard Bleier after Bleier retired Báez on a fly to right that ended the eighth.

“Javi is a guy that wears his emotions,” Rojas said. “I think he heard something that was said to him and he reacted to that. There’s no frustration to that. These guys fought until the last out of the game.”

The Mets were limited to five hits by Neidert (1-1) and four relievers.

“We have to put in the work with our hitters and make sure that they are going into the game ready and more aggressive in the zone, rather than expanding,” Rojas said.

Neidert allowed three runs and three hits,...