Nick Johnson has 4 RBIs, leading Marlins 13-4 win over Mets and three-game sweep

Johnson drives in 4 runs as Marlins rout Mets

NEW YORK — Nick Johnson drove in four runs and the Florida Marlins beat the listless New York Mets 13-4 on Thursday night to gain ground on the NL East-leading Phillies.

Hanley Ramirez and Cody Ross each had three hits and two RBIs for the Marlins, who completed their first sweep of the Mets since taking four straight Aug. 30-Sept. 2, 2004, in New York. Dan Uggla hit his 27th homer in the third inning.

Florida has enjoyed its September trips to New York the last couple of years. Spoilers in 2007 and ‘08, the Marlins twice dashed the Mets’ playoff hopes on the last day with victories. This year they came to the Big Apple with postseason aspirations of their own.

The Marlins wrapped up a 5-1 trip and moved within five games of Philadelphia, which lost 8-7 at Washington. They also remained 5½ back of the wild card-leading Rockies with 22 games remaining, including six against the Phillies.

Johnson had two-run singles in the seventh and eighth as the Marlins missed their season high for runs by one and amassed 16 hits.

The Mets (62-78) fell 16 games under .500 for the first time since finishing 71-91 in 2004.

Playing in front of a Citi Field crowd that was much less than the announced attendance of 37,620, the Mets showed why they’ve come apart this season.

Bobby Parnell walked consecutive batters with the bases loaded after an error by shortstop Anderson Hernandez and Angel Pagan forgot how many outs there were while running the bases. Luis Castillo had another adventure at second base and New York pitchers didn’t have a 1-2-3 inning until the ninth.

The Mets held a 30-minute meeting following batting practice then fell behind quickly. The Marlins led 3-0 by the time the 19-minute, 40-pitch first inning was over.

Chris Coghlan hustled for a leadoff double when left fielder Nick Evans and center fielder Pagan were slow to get to his soft liner in the gap. Parnell (3-8) walked Johnson and Ramirez reached on Hernandez’s error to load the bases. Parnell then walked two batters for a 2-0 lead.

The Mets lead the majors with 19 bases-loaded walks — three by Parnell — two more than Texas. They’ve also hit two batters with the bases loaded, according to STATS LLC.

Ross added an RBI single for a 3-0 lead on a fly to shallow center that appeared to be catchable. He also had an RBI double in the fifth.

Rookie left-hander Sean West, who hit a ground-rule double into the New York bullpen in right-center and scored on Ramirez’s single in the fourth, scuffled in the bottom half, giving up two runs. He was pulled two batters into the fifth, allowing four runs and six hits. Burke Badenhop (7-4) pitched two innings.

Parnell walked five and threw only 56 of his 104 pitches for strikes.

Pagan turned a routine flyout into an inning-ending double play in the seventh. Castillo spun around aimlessly looking for a ball at his feet after diving for Uggla’s grounder in the eighth, aiding a three-run inning.

NOTES: Each team struck out 10 times. … Mets RHP John Maine (sore shoulder) will make his first start since June 6 on Sunday in a doubleheader opener at Philadelphia. … Marlins RHP Rick VandenHurk had his normal bullpen session after leaving Tuesday’s start with a sore back muscle. He hopes to make his start Sunday against Washington. … The first of the 12 super columns for the Marlins’ new ballpark will begin being poured Friday.