Miami Marlins at New York Mets

NEW YORK – “Oh, nice!” While Marlins right-hander Janson Junk discussed his outing during an in-game interview, including a treacherous fifth inning in which Kyle Stowers’ fielding error led to an unearned run, Stowers atoned for his miscue with a solo homer. When Stowers returned to the dugout, where he held up the club’s Miami nightclub-inspired bottle service sign and made his way through a row of teammates, Junk was there to greet him in Friday night’s 5-2 victory over the Mets at Citi Field. Miami (56-55) moved over .500 again and pulled within 1 1/2 games of the third NL Wild Card spot with its first win in Queens in five tries this season. “I didn't even hear it off the bat,” Junk admitted postgame. “I just heard people cheering, and then seeing Stowey run the bases, that was really cool.” Early on, it was a pitchers’ duel between Junk and right-hander Kodai Senga, who started in place of Trade Deadline candidate Freddy Peralta. The Marlins broke the scoreless deadlock with four runs in the fifth and chased Senga in the process. Griffin Conine led off the inning with a walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Heriberto Hernández walked before Jakob Marsee, who went deep in Thursday’s 4-2 loss, drove in a run with a hustle double in the same at-bat he also showed bunt to knock Senga out of the game. With the infield drawn in against former Marlin Xzavion Curry, Joe Mack produced a two-run single and Xavier Edwards later tacked on a bloop RBI single. New York got one run back in the bottom half of the frame after first baseman Stowers committed a fielding error on what should’ve been the third out. Instead, the next three batters reached to load the bases. Junk, however, escaped further damage on Bo Bichette’s popout to end his outing. “I don't know why he was so apologetic for it,” Junk said. “He's been playing great over there, and he's saved me multiple times. It's baseball. Stuff happens. In that moment, I thought it was going to be three outs right there, let down my guard a little bit, and then things got a little messy. “But I had to lock back in and just keep executing my pitches to the best of my ability, and I think that's what we did, just to come out of there just with one run is great for the ballclub.”