Dee Gordon and the Miami Marlins wore their emotions on the sleeves of their No. 16 jerseys.
Jose Fernandez would have loved it.
Gordon homered leading off the first inning for the Marlins, who totaled 14 hits and mixed cheers with the tears of the past two days by beating the New York Mets 7-3 on Monday in their first game since Fernandez died in a boating accident.
Photo: Steve Mitchell, USA Today
“We were hitting balls underwater pretty much,” slugger Giancarlo Stanton said. “Our eyes were full of water.”
Adam Conley pitched three scoreless innings subbing for Fernandez, who had been scheduled to make his final start of the year. Justin Bour went three for three and Gordon had four hits, including one that will go down in Marlins lore.
Paying tribute to their charismatic ace, the left-handed Gordon stepped to the plate as a righty leading off the first. After one pitch, Gordon switched to his customary left side and pulled a 2-0 delivery from Bartolo Colon into the upper deck for his first homer of the season.
The improbable clout brought tears, even from Gordon. He began crying as he circled the bases.
“It seemed like it took forever,” Gordon said. “I was trying to get back to my teammates as fast as possible. I was just wondering why Jose wasn’t there standing on the top step cheering for me.”
After crossing the plate, Gordon tapped his chest and waved toward the sky, before sobbing as his teammates hugged him in the dugout.
Stanton said the homer from Gordon was unbelievable, but easy to explain.
“Pure emotion,” Stanton said. “There’s no other way it could be scripted, unless you’re in a movie rewriting everything that just happened.”
Even the Mets appreciated what Gordon’s homer meant.
“I saw him crying when he rounded first base,” Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud said. “I was crying too.”
Each of the Marlins wore black jerseys bearing Fernandez’s No. 16 and name, a tribute they had suggested. Stanton delivered an emotional speech as the entire team gathered at the mound moments before the game, then contributed a hit, a run and a running, lunging backhanded catch in right field to rob Jay Bruce.
Colon (14-8), mourning Fernandez’s death himself, allowed a season-high seven runs in 2-1/3 innings.
“It was very difficult for everything they’re going through,” Colon said. “It’s very difficult for me, too, because it was someone that I had some sort of relationship with. Jose looked up to me and we got along well.”
In Detroit, Michigan, Cleveland clinched the American League Central title, overcoming an injury to ace right-hander Corey Kluber in a 7-4 victory over the Tigers.
Kluber left after four innings with right-groin tightness, joining Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar in a group of talented Cleveland pitchers dealing with injuries, but even those concerns were secondary when the Indians poured onto the field to celebrate their first division title since 2007.
Buck Farmer (0-1) allowed four runs in five innings for the Tigers, who fell two games behind Baltimore for the second American League wild-card spot.
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