Marlins keep hold on first place in NL East after sweeping doubleheader vs Orioles
In the span of 26 hours, the Miami Marlins went from wondering exactly how they would perform after being stuck in a hotel for a week and losing more than two-thirds of their bullpen to stringing together some of the best pitching performances.
Three games against the Baltimore Orioles. Three wins. One run allowed. Nothing short of impressive, given the circumstances.
After winning the series opener 4-0 on Tuesday, the Marlins swept a Wednesday doubleheader 1-0 and 2-1. They can sweep the three-day, four-game series in Baltimore with a win Thursday.
“Good to put some wins on the board,” said Marlins manager Don Mattingly, who tied Jack McKeon for the most wins as a manager in franchise history with 281 after the two wins Wednesday.
Somehow, someway, the Marlins keep finding ways to win in this shortened, weird, abnormal season even after getting a reality check from the coronavirus pandemic.
They’re 5-1 on the season, putting them in first place in the National League East when going off winning percentage (which MLB will do if some teams don’t play all 60 games).
Even more impressive: They’re 3-0 since their impromptu eight-day layoff, an effect of 18 players and two coaches testing positive for COVID-19.
And to make that even more impressive: The Marlins shut out the Orioles for the first 21 2/3 innings of the three games. The Orioles first run came with two outs in the sixth inning of Wednesday’s second game when an Austin Hays liner bounced past Eddy Alvarez and Jonathan Villar on the left side of the infield to score Anthony Santander.
“It’s been a little bit of an eye-opener, really,” Mattingly said. “Today especially, after seeing some guys we haven’t seen. Some of our guys, we don’t know what we’re going to get necessarily. ... To start to see some of our guys and get everybody involved is nice.”
They did it in the second game of the doubleheader Wednesday despite no pitcher throwing more than two innings.
Three of their five pitchers to throw in the game — Josh A. Smith, Brian Moran, Justin Shafer — weren’t even on the Marlins’ roster before Tuesday, all picked up on waiver claims or called up from their alternate training site in Jupiter. A fourth, Sterling Sharp, threw 1 2/3 scoreless innings in his MLB debut. Stephen Tarpley was the fifth pitcher to take the mound in Wednesday’s nightcap and earned the save.
Combined, the group held the Orioles to four hits, the one run and recorded seven strikeouts.
“The bullpen,” Mattingly said. “What a day.”
They got all the offense they needed in the first inning, when Jesus Aguilar’s sacrifice fly scored Jonathan Villar and Brian Anderson’s RBI single one at-bat later plated Jon Berti.
Anderson, who played first base for the first time in his professional career in the second game Wednesday, also scored the only run in the first game of the doubleheader, belting a solo home run to right field.
This story was originally published August 5, 2020 at 10:17 PM.
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