Mixed scrimmage results for Hernandez, Yamamoto with Marlins rotation spot up for grabs
The fifth spot in the Miami Marlins’ starting pitching rotation, just like it was when spring training came to a halt on March 12, looks to be between Elieser Hernandez and Jordan Yamamoto with Robert Dugger and Nick Neidert on the outside looking in.
Hernandez and Yamamoto faced off in Sunday’s team scrimmage at Marlins Park, yielding pretty solid results early before giving way to hitters late in their outings.
Hernandez struck out five batters in his first three innings of work before getting into trouble in his final two. The 25-year-old righty fought with traffic on the basepaths in the fourth inning, ultimately giving up a run on a Jonathan Villar sacrifice bunt that scored Jon Berti from third base. He gave up a towering home run to Jonathan Villar in the fifth.
Yamamoto threw four innings, striking out two in the first two innings and showing some solid glove work defensively. In the second inning, with Harold Ramirez on third base, Yamamoto fielded a weakly hit groundball from Corey Dickerson just in front of home plate and flipped it to Chad Wallach to tag Ramirez out at home. Yamamoto struck out Garrett Cooper in the next at-bat to end the inning.
But Yamamoto’s third inning was rough. After two quick groundouts (including some nice glove work on a comebacker from Berti), he gave up three consecutive hits — a Villar single to right, a Jesus Aguilar RBI double off the wall in left-center field and an RBI double to Eddy Alvarez.
The two will get at least one more simulated game/live scrimmage before the team’s exhibition games against the Atlanta Braves on July 21 and 22 that will wrap up summer camp.
More observations
▪ The Marlins did not have a home plate umpire for the scrimmage. Instead, they relied on TrackMan data to determine called balls and strikes. Marlins player relations and Spanish media liaison Luis Dorante had served as home plate umpire for the first two scrimmages open to the media on Thursday and Friday.
▪ Jeff Brigham, Brandon Kintzler, Ryne Stanek and Brad Boxberger each pitched an inning out of the bullpen.
▪ Miami used just 10 position players in its scrimmage but didn’t field a full defense at any point, as has been the case with all the other scrimmages to this point.
For the infield, Aguilar was at first base, Berti at second base, Villar at shortstop and Alvarez at third base. Ramirez, Dickerson and Garrett Cooper were the outfielders. Francisco Cervelli, Chad Wallach and Ryan Lavarnway alternated at catcher.
With limited (or in some cases no) defense behind the pitchers, outs and hits were subjective. Any routine play was viewed as an out unless there was a defender there with a chance to make a play.
▪ Alvarez, a Miami native and Columbus High alumnus, has quietly impressed over the past few days. He had three extra-base hits on Sunday, including a triple against Brigham and doubles against Yamamoto and Stanek.
This story was originally published July 12, 2020 at 7:50 PM.
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