Johnson’s double send Mets to 5-2 win over Marlins

The Mets were also without Neil Walker, who announced he would have season-ending surgery to fix a herniated disc in his back. The Marlins won 6-4. How about Terry Collins, how has he performed as the manager and is the grief he gets justified?

The Mets needed runs Thursday as deGrom produced a mediocre start to put the Mets in an early hole, and Josh Smoker turned a two-run deficit into a five-run hole in the seventh.

The Marlins had scored only eight runs combined in their five straight losses.

Urena has given the Marlins three solid starts in a row, going 2-1 during that span while allowing four runs over 17 1/3 innings (2.08 ERA). That apparently didn’t work, though.

Then, after laboring through his fifth and final inning as his fastball sagged to as low as 91 miles per hour, deGrom made the seemingly ominous motion for the medical staff.

“Everything’s fine. I was frustrated with how I pitched”. I got exhausted towards the end. “I don’t know if that front foot is just floating and not getting down, causing me to yank a lot of fastballs”, deGrom said.

The surging Mets will look to complete a four-game sweep of the reeling Marlins on Thursday night when the two teams meet at Citi Field. If deGrom doesn’t come up with some answers very soon, the Mets’ amped-up pursuit of the second wild card could stall.

“That’s been the big issue”, he said. “You can’t lose three-fifths of your rotation”.

Collins also was including Matt Harvey and Steven Matz in that mix, as the Long Island lefty remains in limbo with rotator-cuff irritation. The Marlins are three back in the Wild Card after a crappy August.

After two consecutive starts in which he failed to make it past the fifth inning, the Mets gave deGrom extra rest before Thursday night’s start.

Fernando Rodney allowed a leadoff single to Travis d’Arnaud and a two-run homer to Asdrubal Cabrera in the ninth before retiring the final three batters.

He is everything we want our athletes to be as role models, he practices the right way and approaches and plays the game the right way. But let me tell you something, and we’ve talked about this all year: If Yoenis Cespedes goes down, that’s an bad lot to ask of Brandon Nimmo or Michael Conforto to make up for him.

Christian Yelich homered for Miami, which dropped its fifth consecutive game to fall two games behind NY as both teams continue to chase St. Louis for the second NL wild card.

“I can’t explain the importance of having a veteran player who has been through many, many different situations, who can come off the bench and be a big hitter in big situations”, Collins said. It worked a year ago.

“He’s not afraid to play cheap”, Mattingly said. “We’re fighting tooth and nail to stay in the playoff race”. Jay Bruce did hit a home run and his RBI single in the eighth inning. He can also move over to 3B, and the Mets can place Jose Reyes at 2B, who many believe can be in line to be the Mets starting 2B on opening day in 2017.