Miami Marlins hope to be on ‘upswing’ after recent stretch of success
For the first time this season, Miami Marlins manager Don Mattingly has seen an extended glimpse during the regular season of what he thought his team could team produce.
Seven wins over a 10-game span — including back-to-back series sweeps — is a sizable accomplishment for this team, one without a true big-name player and one that had just 10 wins and was 21-games under .500 before this run began.
“Hopefully we’re on the upswing,” Mattingly said Tuesday ahead of his team’s three-game home series with the San Francisco Giants. “I thought we would be better record wise than we were going into this whole stretch, but we have been able to put some wins on the board. It starts to give you the thought that maybe we can sustain something moving forward.”
So what will sustaining this success look like?
Keeping the timely offense will be a start. Over the 10-game run, which includes a three-game home sweep against the New York Mets, a three-game road sweep of the Detroit Tigers and a 1-3 outing at the Washington Nationals, the Marlins (17-34) posted a .257 batting average with 48 runs and 12 home runs. Miami had a .218 average and just 24 home runs through their first 41 games.
The contributions have come from all over. Oft-injured outfielder Garrett Cooper hit two home runs against the Tigers, including a go-ahead grand slam in the ninth inning on Wednesday. Neil Walker is hitting .344 in May to bring his batting average up to .296 on the year. Rookie outfielder Harold Ramirez has shined at the plate, hitting .381 in 12 games since being called up on May 11 and reaching base safely in all but one of those games. Brian Anderson has shown his power potential, hitting three home runs and driving in 11 runs over the 10 games.
“I think the biggest thing — and it’s what we internally all felt — is that our offense is not as bad as it was performing,” Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill said. “You’ve got experienced veterans in the Walkers and [Curtis Grandersons] and [Miguel] Rojas. And even our young position players, earlier stretches in those first two months of the season, we didn’t have anyone who was swinging the bat consistently. We had starting pitching that has been what we all expected it to be, but our offense hasn’t been as consistent. I think you saw during that stretch that we’re swinging the bats better. That’s a trend I think we expect to see the rest of the season.”
Steady starting pitching helps, too. The Marlins starting five of Jose Urena, Trevor Richards, Pablo Lopez, Sandy Alcantara and Caleb Smith had five combined quality starts, defined as throwing at least six innings while giving up no more than three earned runs, over the 10-game stretch. Richards came 1/3 of an inning shy of tacking on another after giving up just one earned run over 5 2/3 innings in the Marlins’ 5-2 win in the series-sweeping win over the Tigers on Thursday.
The group has found itself in rough patches at times this year, but the damage is usually consolidated into one inning.
Veteran reliever Sergio Romo, meanwhile, has four saves in as many chances over the stretch to bring his season total to ten.
“It’s been fun to see it bounce our way,” Romo said. “... We had to earn this. We had to work hard for this. Just have to keep it going.”
Mattingly added: “It’s a good feeling. You’re always working the same way. You’re trying to prepare, but putting a few wins on the board brings out a little more confidence and a little more fun. It just makes things better.”
This story was originally published May 28, 2019 at 5:43 PM.
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