After another close loss, can Marlins turn corner? ‘We’ll start putting games together’

The entire ninth-inning sequence was strange. It started with an inifield single — an in-between grounder by Freddie Freeman, which bounced off Adam Conley’s glove and landed in no-man’s land — and only got stranger.

The All-Star first baseman went to second on catcher’s interference, then to third on a passed ball. The Miami Marlins have made a habit of making games interesting in the final frame and it happened again Sunday, this time against them as Dansby Swanson took advantage of some fortunate bounces to slap a walk-off single to left field and give the Atlanta Braves a 4-3 win at SunTrust Park.

“Today wasn’t new for me. Nothing happened on the field today that hasn’t happened to me before. I know the game’s moving in a lot of directions of trying to be more concrete and things,” Conley said. “I personally appreciate the human error of the game. That’s the game I grew up playing, so obviously sometimes it’s going to go your way and sometimes it’s not. I think in general, as a team, we’re very talented and we’ve been playing really good baseball. At times we’ve been rewarded for that and at times we haven’t.”

The loss was the narrowest yet for the Marlins (3-7) in a season so far filled with ninth-inning rallies either falling short or never quite materializing. After Caleb Smith gave Miami another quality start to keep the Marlins within striking distance in Atlanta, Curtis Granderson blasted a pinch-hit home run off relief pitcher Arodys Vizcaino to tie the Braves (5-4) at 3-3 in the top of the ninth.

The Marlins, who had gone 10 straight bullpen innings without allowing a run, turned to Conley (0-2) to try to get to extra innings and the relief pitcher actually pitched well, only to be undone by the inherent strangeness of the sport. The Braves loaded the bases without hitting a ball out of the infield, then sent the crowd of 32,551 into a frenzy when Swanson beat a five-man infield for the game-winning hit.

“It was really a pretty good ball game,” manager Don Mattingly said. “It ends bad, but you didn’t really catch a break there in the ninth.”

The habit of playing close games is quickly becoming routine for Miami because of the way its roster is balanced. The Marlins’ overall ERA ranks in the top 20 in MLB and their bullpen ERA sits in the top 10. Their on-base percentage, slugging percentage and actual run production, however, all rank in the bottom third of the Majors. Miami has the promising young pitching to stay in games consistently and win if its hitting comes through.

Smith gave the Marlins another one of those solid outings they hope for from their young staff. The starting pitcher followed up a solid season debut Monday against the New York Mets by going six innings with seven strikeouts, two walks and three earned runs. He allowed only four hits, but home runs by Freeman and Swanson provided the entirety of the damage.

“I felt good. I feel like my stuff was good,” Smith said. “My command was better than last time, but still not where it needs to be.”

It was good enough to keep Miami within striking distance when Vizcaino (1-0) took the mound in the ninth and Granderson delivered. The outfielder launched his second pinch-hit homer of the year to center to give the Marlins their eighth ninth-inning run of the season — two more runs than they’ve scored in any other inning.

This penchant for ninth-inning scares is becoming encouraging inside the clubhouse, even if the four losses by three runs or fewer are frustrating. For a young team, the hope is close losses will at some point start to become close wins. Miami is optimistic they will.

“For the most part, we’re in every single game and I’ve been thinking about it a lot,” Conley said. “I didn’t think I was going to say anything on it not being prompted on it, but you look at teams around baseball that people ... pretty unanimously are going to say there’s really good teams out there and their record doesn’t reflect the team they are. I think we fit into that category.

“I know a lot of people don’t give us the credit that I think we deserve as far as our talent and everything, but I think the quality of baseball that we’ve played isn’t reflected in our record and wins and losses. As a young team, I think that as we get rolling and find a little bit of a groove, I think we’ll start putting games together and you’ll start seeing us come out on the other side of those.”

This story was originally published April 7, 2019 at 3:57 PM.