Miami Marlins buzz past San Diego Padres in finale to clinch road series
Not even a swarm of bees could get Trevor Richards off his game on Sunday.
Despite having to endure a 28-minute delay in the third inning while an exterminator removed bees from a microphone attached to netting behind home plate, Richards had one of his best starts of the season while getting plenty of support from his offense to lead the Miami Marlins to an 9-3 series-clinching victory over the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. The Marlins (21-36) won the second game of the series 9-3 on Saturday after dropping the opener 5-2 on Friday. Miami has also now won four of its last five series and 11 of its last 16 games.
Richards, who won his first game away from Marlins Park this season, buzzed through the Padres lineup twice over five scoreless innings. He struck out a career-high eight batters and allowed just three baserunners over his time on the mound. The only hit he surrendered was on an Austin Allen third-inning bunt single while the Marlins were in the shift.
After striking out the next two batters and getting into his second at-bat against Josh Naylor, the game went on hold as a swarm of bees made its way to the field. Players ducked and moved toward the outfield while officials assessed the situation. An exterminator came out and removed the swarm.
“That was the first I’ve ever seen that,” Richards said, adding later that he swatted a pair of bees from his leg and ear. “They told me it was going to be at least 10 minutes. I took it almost as another break between innings.”
Richards quickly got back to work once play resumed, getting Naylor to fly out to center field to end the inning. He went on to retire six of the next seven he faced to close out his start.
His change-up, one of the best in MLB, was immensely effective, with 30 of the 37 going for strikes. Seven of his eight strikeouts ended with change ups.
“It’s a different change than most people have,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said pregame. “You can look at it on tape. You can know his frequency of using it, but until you see it, it’s a different pitch. You have to game plan for it. It just makes everything else better.”
Richards’ only problem in the win was a high pitch count. He threw 98 pitches against 18 batters, with the Padres (30-29) fouling off 37 of those pitches to extend at-bats. The fact that the Marlins were already up 7-0 by the time he left the mound for the last time made it a little easier for Richards to to leave the game with four innings left.
“It gets frustrating, but when the offense comes out and swings it like that, it’s OK,” Richards said. “I gave five and obviously would like to throw more, but they were fouling off pitches and making me work a little bit.”
The Marlins offense, meanwhile, stung early and often.
Catcher Jorge Alfaro recorded a career-high four RBI on a two-run home run in the second — his team-leading ninth of the year — and a two-run double in the fourth.
Alfaro is hitting .375 with four home runs, four doubles and 13 RBI over his last 13 games to boost his season batting average to .278 in his first year with the Marlins after being sent to the team from the Philadelphia Phillies in the J.T. Realmuto trade..
“It’s baseball,” Alfaro said. “I’ve always been like that. It doesn’t matter the result. I just want to be sure that I went out and gave 100 percent for my team.”
Outfielder Garrett Cooper homered in the third, giving the Marlins their third multi-home run outing over the last 16 games and 19 total home runs in that span.
Harold Ramirez had a three-hit — his third in 17 MLB games — and drove in a pair of runs to bring his season average up to .379. Brian Anderson also had three hits, with his last coming in the ninth against Ty France, who started the game at third base. Martin Prado and Alfaro also had multi-hit games. Starlin Castro and Ramirez each drove in a pair of runs. Cooper, Prado and Anderson each scored twice.
The Marlins scored runs in five different innings during the win and chased starter Matt Strahm in the fifth.
“That was what was nice,”Mattingly said. “Sometimes you get a game in which they change pitchers and the momentum changes and you’re not able to add on.
“Today, we kept adding on.”
Wei-Yin Chen (two innings), Jarlin Garcia (one inning) and Jeff Brigham (one inning) threw the final four innings to secure the win.
The Padres avoided the shutout with a Hunter Renfroe solo home run off Chen in the seventh. Renfroe hit a second home run with two outs in in the ninth off Brigham.
This and that
▪ The Marlins scored at least nine runs in back-to-back games for the first time since doing so at the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sept. 23-22, 2017.
▪ Prado recorded back-to-back multi-hit games on Saturday and Sunday after hitting .150 (9 for 60) the entire month of May. “I told everybody, ‘Whatever happened in May, I don’t want to talk about it,’” Prado said postgame on Saturday. “This is a new month and just came with a refreshed attitude.”
▪ JT Riddle entered the game as a center field defensive replacement in the eighth inning. It was his first career appearance at any position other than shortstop at the MLB level.
This story was originally published June 2, 2019 at 9:44 PM.
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