Marlins rally after being roughed up by deGrom, but Mets win with key late hit
It was past midnight when the Miami Marlins completed their doubleheader sweep against the New York Mets to start a four-game series at Citi Field. Momentum was turning in the Marlins’ favor again as they attempt to keep a firm grasp on their playoff positioning as the shortened 2020 season nears the halfway mark.
But Marlins manager Don Mattingly knew his team couldn’t get wrapped up in the wins that were already behind them.
The biggest challenge of the series was still ahead of them.
“Whatever happens today, in about 10 minutes, it’s over,” Mattingly said in the wee hours of Wednesday morning following the 4-0 and 3-0 wins. “We’ve got Jacob deGrom [Wednesday], and that’s the game we have to try to win.”
Try as they might, the Marlins once again had little success against one of Major League Baseball’s best pitchers and their late rally attempt once he left the mound didn’t hold.
deGrom tied a career high with 14 strikeouts against the Marlins, who lost 5-4 to the Mets on Wednesday. The two-time-defending National League Cy Young Award winner held the Marlins (14-12) to two hits and two walks over seven innings.
The lone run deGrom gave up came in the third. Matt Joyce led off the inning with a bloop double to shallow left field that fell between three Mets players. Jesus Aguilar moved Joyce to third with a groundout and Corey Dickerson brought him home with another groundout.
Miami put together an eighth-inning rally against the Mets’ bullpen to tie the game, scoring runs on a Jesus Aguilar bases-loaded infield single and back-to-back bases-loaded walks from Dickerson and Brian Anderson.
But Wilson Ramos’ RBI single in the bottom half of the inning against Nick Vincent put the Mets (13-16) ahead for good.
Over three starts against Miami this year, deGrom held the Marlins to three earned runs on 13 hits and four walks with 27 strikeouts over 18 innings.
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Shaky start from Hernandez
On the other side of the pitching matchup, the Marlins got a shaky outing from Elieser Hernandez, who has been one of the Marlins’ more steady starters. Mattingly pulled Hernandez with after allowing three baserunners to start the fifth inning (although one came on a wild pitch strikeout). That forced Miami’s bullpen to once again be responsible to cover more than half of the game.
Hernandez’s final line: Four runs allowed (three earned) on seven hits with seven strikeouts and one walk allowed. He threw 96 pitches. His ERA jumped from 2.29 to 3.04 after the outing.
Two of those runs came on solo home runs from Michael Conforto in the third and Brandon Nimmo in the fifth. Both home runs came on poorly thrown sliders, a pitch that had been one of Hernandez’s best this year. Heading into Wednesday, Hernandez had only given up two hits with the pitch.
Now, in fairness, Hernandez had been one of the bigger surprises for the Marlins this season on the whole. The former Rule 5 pick entered the season expecting to be the fifth starter in the Marlins’ rotation. Instead, with three starting pitchers sidelined due to COVID-19, he has been the No. 2 pitcher behind Pablo Lopez.
“From the very beginning he was very composed, very smart, detailed in his work, pays attention to what he wants to do,” Mattingly said pregame. “He has a pretty good understanding of who he is. He has come a long way. I don’t think any of us thought that your fifth guy would just have some of the best numbers in the National League right now for pitchers. He’s been I’d have to say a little bit of a surprise, but you kind of watched him grow so it’s not a total surprise.”
The Marlins have only gotten five-plus innings from starting pitchers in 11 of 26 games this year.
MLB statement
Three MLB games were postponed Wednesday night as teams followed the lead of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, who boycotted their playoff game in wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
The games postponed: Milwaukee Brewers and Cincinnati Reds, San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners, and San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers.
MLB released the following statement following the postponements:
“Given the pain in the communities of Wisconsin and beyond following the shooting of Jacob Blake, we respect the decisions of a number of players not to play tonight. Major League Baseball remains united for change in our society and we will be allies in the fight to end racism and injustice.”
Magneuris Sierra to IL
One of the pleasant surprises for the Marlins this season is sidelined for the immediate future.
Miami placed outfielder Magneuris Sierra on the 10-day injured list Wednesday with a right hamstring strain.
Mattingly said Sierra felt tightness in the hamstring on Monday and the team wanted to give him a couple days off to gauge the severity of the injury.
“It didn’t really respond,” Mattingly said. “As much as anything, we knew this was going to be an IL.”
It puts a temporary stop to what has been a breakout season for Sierra. The speedy outfielder was hitting .278 with three doubles, a triple, seven RBI, eight runs scored and four stolen bases in 15 games.
“He’s been playing well,” Mattingly said. “He’s come a long way. Just his confidence is growing going forward. That’s not going to change because of this. It’s just unfortunate for him and for us that we’re going to be [without him] a few days. My history of watching those things, they never seem to be real fast [recoveries]. We’ll see where it goes.”
Left handed pitcher Brandon Leibrandt was recalled from the taxi squad to take Sierra’s spot on the active roster. Leibrandt, who threw four scoreless innings in his MLB debut on Sunday, was the Marlins’ first reliever used on Wednesday. He allowed one of two inherited runners to score as he worked the fifth.
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