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pn SunSentinel.com Sun Sentinel 3C MLB Mets' HRs deal loss to Hand One 100-loss season enough for Redmond a hit by Daniel Murphy of the ELS AGETTY IMAGES PHOTO New York Mets in the fourth second World Series title in 2003. "When we started finally turning the corner as a team and as an organization it really made us appreciate the fact that when we started winning how fun it was. We could always say, 'Remember those days in '98 when we got our brains beat in by the Braves with Tom Gla-vine and Greg Maddux and John Smoltz and all those "It was a learning experience. That's kind of where we're at." Jose and Doc Fernandez met an idol of his before Friday's game, former Met Dwight Goo-den who was at Citi Field promoting his book "Doc." Gooden was National League Rookie of the Year in 1984 when he had a season at age 19 comparable to the one Fernandez, 2L has had this season. Like Gooden, Fernandez wears 16 and played high school baseball in Tampa.

Injury update Right-hander Nathan Eovaldi, scratched from Friday's start with back tightness, was feeling considerably better. But he won't pitch this weekend, and Redmond held slim hope that he would be ready Monday in Philadelphia. Sam Dyson will likely get that start. He was given three innings Thursday in preparation for that possibility. Catcher Jeff Mathis said the swelling had subsided in his bruised right thumb and was hopeful of hitting in the batting cage Saturday and returning to the lineup as soon as Sunday.

He hurt the thumb while trying to block a wild pitch in the dirt Monday in Miami. By Craig Davis Staff writer NEW YORK Mike Redmond already has his name etched on a 100-loss season and is hopeful of avoiding another. The Miami Marlins manager was a rookie catcher in 1998 when the team lost 108 games after the championship squad from the previous season was dismantled. This year's Marlins, the product of another roster purge albeit following a last-place finish Friday began an 11-game, 10-day road trip needing to go 9-8 over the final 17 games to avoid the franchise's second season of triple-digit defeats. "I think I remember the next year more because that became our focus: not to lose 100 two years in a row," Redmond said of the 1999 Marlins, who ended 64-98.

"I think nobody wants to be a part of a team that loses 100 games. "When you start talking about that, it's been the goal for me and all of us to finish the season strong and win as many of these ballgames as we can down the stretch." The Marlins will have to do that without ace righthander Jose Fernandez and with the remainder of the starting rotation struggling mightily for the past two weeks. Beginning the four-game series with the Mets, they were 5-6 this month following a 8-20 August. "This has just been a crazy year," Redmond said. "Our pitching has kept us in ballgames and we've had lots of opportunities to win games if we had the ability to score more runs." While some of the details have faded in memory, Redmond recalls the lessons learned by the young core of players in 1998 and '99 that galvanized in the Marlins' NFL his liner to left-center and barely beating the throw to second.

They were poised for a bigger inning with runners on the corners, but Hand sabotaged his own cause by bunting into a double play. Stanton led off the second with a line-shot into the bleachers in left. The Mets' Andrew Brown duplicated it to open the bottom of the inning into the same area Justin Ruggiano Marlins at Mets, 4:10 p.m. Whenwhere: 4:10 p.m., Citi Field, New York ON THE MOUND Game 1: RHP Henderson Alvarez (3-4, 4.34) vs. RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka (0-3, 8.00); Game 2: RHP Jacob Turner (3-6, 3.43) vs.

RHP Carlos Torres (3-4, 3.53): Alvarez made an early exit after giving up five runs in the fourth inning of his last start vs. Atlanta. Matsuzaka's last outing was his best as a Met (5 23 IP, 1ER, 3H vs. Cleveland). Turner has walked 19 in his past fives starts; Torres gave up four homers his last time out.

Sunday RHP Tom Koehler (3-10, 4.80) vs. RHP Dillon Gee (11-10, 3.61) UPCOMING SERIES Monday-Wednesday, at Phillies; Sept. 19-22, at Nationals; Sept. 23-25, Phillies ON THE AIR TV: Radio: 790-AM, 104.3 FM, 710-AM (Spanish) Craig Davis By Craig Davis Staff Writer NEW YORK With their ace on hold and the next-best option ailing, the Marlins were looking for a hot hand. It appeared they found one in Brad Hand during a promising start Friday at Citi Field before he lost his grip in a 4-3 loss to the Mets.

The September call-up had it going for five strong innings but fell victim to the one-bad-inning bug that has recently been the downfall of Marlins starters other than Jose Fernandez. The left-hander's critical mistake was hanging a juicy 3-2 curveball over the plate to Lucas Duda, who drove it over the wall in right field for a three-run home run with two outs in the sixth. "It's a situation where you've got to make a pitch. You've got to get out of that inning," Hand said. "I was trying to go curveball down and away from him.

Just left it up a little bit and got in to his hands. It cost us the game. The Marlins did get a hot bat from Giancarlo Stanton, who hit two home runs off Mets starter Jonathon Niese, but both came with the bases empty. Stanton, with 22 homers this season, has hit four in his past five games at Citi Field, but he struck out leading off the ninth. Excluding Fernandez's two starts, Marlins starters were 3-5 with a 7.02 ERA this month before Friday.

Too many of those starts were brief, taxing the bullpen. Hand carried it farther than most have lately. He has the raw materials of a valuable commodity, a lefthander with a fastball in the low 90s. Lack of command was his undoing in previous opportunities with the Marlins; 44 walks and 47 strikeouts in 69 Vi innings. This time he walked only against Cleveland and ended up with two tackles, including a sack for a nine-yard loss and a forced fumble.

Shelby, the second-year player from Utah, was reasonably pleased with his performance. "I think I did pretty good," he said. "Any time you're out there you want to make plays and I made the plays that were there and that's just going to help me out in the future. Now they'll see and will have confidence to put me back out there." Sturgis honored Kicker Caleb Sturgis won the Pepsi NEXT Rookie of the Week honors for week one. Sturgis, a former University of Florida standout the Dolphins selected in the fifth round, beat out Jets quarterback Geno Smith, 49ers safety Eric Reid, Buffalo quarterback E.J.

Manuel and New Orleans receiver Kenny Still in a fan vote on NFL.com. In Miami's 23-10 win over the Browns Sturgis was 3 for 3 on field goals including one for a long of 49 yards. He also went 2 for 2 on PAT attempts. CBs Davis, Taylor won't play vs. Colts Miami's Christian Yelich fields inning Friday at Citi Field.

two in 5 2A innings, but serving two homers resulted in his career record falling to 1-10. "Just really the difference was they got the three-run homer and our two homers from Stanton were solo shots," said Marlins manager Mike Redmond, who was otherwise impressed by Hand. "I can't think of too many bad pitches that he made. Unfortunately, that was the bad pitch at the wrong time, and it cost him." Hand's only major league win came July 7, 2011 when he held Houston without a run on two hits in seven innings the Astros were still a National League team and the game was at Sun Life Stadium, then home of the Florida Marlins. The 2008 second-round draft pick had a respectable season in Triple-A: 3-5 with a 3.42 ERA in 15 starts for New Orleans.

The Marlins gave Hand a 2-1 lead in the fifth on back-to-back doubles by Ed Lucas and Donovan Solano. Lucas made it possible by hustling out of the box on Dolphins wide receiver Mike game, Wallace only had one DOLPHINS Continued from Page 1C "What Cleveland did sometimes was land of roll up on him try to take away that best receiver," Colts defensive coordinator Greg Manusky told the Indianapolis Star. "But we have to do that as well. He's a productive player, gets up the field, he's a deep threat. We have to make sure we get in his face and re-route him and have a safety over the top of him because he can beat double coverage at times." That puts the onus on Tannehill, and to a lesser extent offensive coordinator Mike Sherman.

But mostly it's on Tannehill because the ball is in his hands. For whatever reason, he chose not to throw to Wallace in the first half. And there were times he should have thrown to him "There were some opportunities he could have possibly got some balls," Sherman said. "There's different things that could have happened that could have got him some balls. I could have done abetter job." Tannehill wasn't shy in his five times going to Wallace in just missed a tying homer in the ninth.

But the little mistakes loomed large, as they have all season. The Marlins failed to capitalize on Chris Coghlan's leadoff single in the eighth when Adeiny Hechavarria couldn't execute a bunt "We've struggled bunting, that's for sure. That's definitely an area that we've got to get better at," Redmond said. On the Dolphins' third possession of the quarter Wallace appeared to get tied up with Haden while running a deep post pattern on second-and-nine from the Dolphins' 49-yard-line. Wallace was knocked off his route and the ball was almost intercepted in the end zone by strong safety T.J.

Ward, who had deep coverage. Still, coach Joe Philbin was happy with the Tanne-hillWallace attempts in the second half. "I thought the ball was going to the right spot throughout the course of the game and I thought the decisionmaking was good," he said. For his part, Wallace sounds as though he's going to be more patient this week. He was miffed a week ago after not being part of the gameplan, especially in the first half.

But he suggested there would be no such drama this week. Wallace was asked what happens Sunday if the Dolphins win and he only gets one reception and five targets. "We go to the next week and we're 2-0, that's what happens," Wallace said, "and weYe on our way to our goal, and that's to win every game when we step on the field." Ml 1 SUSAN STOCKER STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Dolphins rookies Will Davis, right, and Jamar Taylor won't play against Indianapolis because of toe and groin injuries. SCOTT HALLERANGETTY IMAGES PHOTO Wallace had zero targets at halftime vs. Cleveland.

For the reception for 15 yards and was targeted a mere five times. By Chris Perkins Staff writer DAVIE Dolphins rookie cornerbacks Will Davis (toe) and Jamar Taylor (groin) have been ruled out and will miss their second consecutive game Sunday when the Dolphins (1-0) visit the Indianapolis Colts (1-0) at Lucas Oil Stadium, and third-team quarterback Pat Devlin (ankle) will also miss his second game of the season. Cornerback Dimitri Patterson (groin), who had two interceptions last week against Cleveland before leaving the game in the third quarter, is listed as questionable. But the more impactful injury news comes from the Colts, where starting running back Vick Ballard was put on the injured reserve list Friday due to a season-ending knee injury he sustained in Thursday's practice. That means a Colts offense that was one dimensional last season figures to be even more lopsided on Sunday when the Dolphins visit.

Ballard, the team's leading rusher last season with 814 yards, sustained a non-contact injury when he tore the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) in his right knee. Ballard had 63 yards on 13 carries in the Colts' victory over Oakland last week. Indianapolis is expected to use running backs Ahmad Bradshaw and Donald Brown to make up for Ballard's loss. The Colts also listed tight end Dwayne Allen (hip) as questionable. Under the radar Wide receiver Brian Hartline's nine receptions for 114 yards and one touchdown were buried amid the NFL picks Sam Farmer's picks for this week's games will run in Sunday's paper.

avalanche of news about wide receiver Mike Wallace and defensive tackle Randy Starks being unhappy. But Hartline was a major reason the Dolphins defeated the Browns 23-10. His 15 targets are tied for sixth in the NFL, his nine receptions are tied for eighth and his 114 yards are tied for 12th in the league. It'll be interesting to see if the Colts defend Hartline the same way the Browns did, which is to say give him lots of space at the line of scrimmage. "They gave us a lot of off coverage to his side, for whatever reason," Philbin said.

"I can't speak to why they did that but the film will tell you that Look over there, there was a lot of off coverage and there was some completions made." Contributing Defensive end Derrick Shelby played 21 snaps "I thought the ball was going to the right spot throughout the course of the game and I thought the decision-making was good." Joe Philbin, Dolphins coach the second half. They went deep three times. But twice he was almost intercepted. The first deep attempt came on the first play of the third quarter, on lst-and-10 from the Dolphins' 17. Tannehill underthrew Wallace, who had a step on Haden, for what would have been at least a 44-yard gain Haden, playing inside, dropped what should have been an interception.

On the next possession, on second-and-11 from the Dolphins' 38-yard line, Wallace had a step on Haden but Tannehill overthrew him for what would have been at least a 43-yard gain.