In the last week of spring training, the Florida Marlins made a trade to acquire veteran left-hander Nate Robertson from the Detroit Tigers, a move that was done to give stability to a young Marlins starting rotation.

Thursday night, Robertson showed that the Marlins made the right move in bringing him back to the team that originally drafted him more than a decade ago, pitching five strong innings in leading the Marlins to a 3-1 victory over the New York Mets at Citi Field.

Robertson scattered six hits and allowed just one run in his five innings, striking out four and walking none in his first appearance for the Marlins since 2002. Blake Badenhop followed with three scoreless innings of relief, allowing just one hit. Leo Nunez pitched a perfect ninth inning for his first save. Nunez was the winning pitcher Wednesday night in the Marlins’ 7-6 win in 10 innings.

The win enabled Florida to win two of three in the opening series in New York.

The Marlins drew first blood in the first inning against Mets starter and loser Jon Niese, who pitched six effective, but not spectacular innings.

Cameron Maybin, who had two hits and scored two runs, singled with one out. Maybin then moved to second on a walk to Hanley Ramirez and then scored on a two-out RBI single by Dan Uggla.

The Mets (1-2) then tied the game in the fourth inning on an RBI double by Jeff Francoeur, scoring Jason Bay who had singled.

But the Marlins reached Niese for single runs in the fifth and sixth on run-scoring doubles from Jorge Cantu and rookie first baseman Gaby Sanchez, giving the Marlins a 3-1 lead. Sanchez has hit three doubles in the last two games.

The listless Mets managed just one hit the remainder of the game.