There are many different ways to gauge how bad the Marlins are after they traded Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich, and Marcell Ozuna. Perhaps the best way to gauge it was how Jason Vargasshut them down tonight.

Entering tonight, Vargas was 0-3 with a 13.86 ERA, and he had yet to pitch long enough to qualify for a win, which based on his ERA, was the least of his problems.

Astonishingly, Vargas was perfect through three. He wouldn’t get into trouble until the fifth. He was able to get through the two on one out situation by striking out Lewis Brinson and Elieser Hernandezto get out of the jam.

At 86 pitches, Vargas was done putting the game into the Mets offense and bullpen’s hands.

The Mets did have a lead when Vargas departed thanks to the speed of Amed Rosario.

In the third, Rosario reached on a one out single, and he was standing there when Asdrubal Cabreracame to the plate. Like he’s done all year, he delivered with a double to right center. On the double, Rosario took off, and with his incredible speed, he scored from first.

Amed Rosario keeps setting #Mets speed marks.

His 9.02-second first-to-home time on Asdrubal Cabrera's RBI double is the fastest by a #Mets player since Statcast came online in 2015. Amed reached a blazing 29.4 feet per second. ??? pic.twitter.com/2xWRJlBL9V

— Matt Kelly (@mattkellyMLB) May 22, 2018

This gave the Mets a lead, but with the offense struggling, the bullpen did not have any margin of error.

In the sixth, Paul Sewald got into some trouble. After a two out Starlin Castro single, Sewald walked Brian Anderson.  Jerry Blevins didn’t help matters but walking Justin Bour to load the bases. AJ Ramos came on and fell behind 2-0 to Derek Dietrich. Ramos battled back in that at-bat, and he struck out Dietrich to end the inning.

As impressive as that was, Ramos helped negate a lead-off walk to Miguel Rojas by being aggressive with his defense. He quickly and adeptly fielded a comeback we from JB Shuck. He quickly whipped and threw to second for the 1-6-3 inning ending double play.

The Mets would plate another run lather that inning on a rally started with a one out Devin Mesoraco double. After Luis Guillorme reached on an error by Martin Prado, Wilmer Flores made sure to make the Marlins pay for the misplay by going with an 0-2 fastball on the outer half to drive the ball past Castro and expand the Mets lead to 2-0.

Those two runs were plenty as Seth Lugo and Jeurys Familia combined to shut down the Marlins in the 8th and 9th to give the Mets their fourth win in a row.  It was also the first time Vargas won a game in a Mets uniform breaking a streak stretching back 11 years (and three teams).

Game Notes: The Mets are purportedly showing interest in recently released Jose Bautista.  It will be interesting to see what the corresponding move will be because the team says Jose Reyes‘ spot on the roster is safe.