Brian Anderson’s three home runs tie club record. Marlins split doubleheader with Nationals
The Miami Marlins haven’t taken for granted the position they’re in right now. They are in the midst of a playoff race with less than two weeks to go in the regular season and are in that spot despite an early setback due to the club’s COVID-19 outbreak at the start of the season, 160 roster moves and 18 prospects making their MLB debuts over the course of the first 50 games of this 60-game season.
They’ve bounced back after nearly every challenge thrown their way this season and knew they needed to get back on track quickly following their latest setback. After winning five of seven games in a pivotal series with the Philadelphia Phillies to open a 15-game, 11-day homestand, the Marlins dropped two of three against the Boston Red Sox and opened Friday’s doubleheader against the Nationals with a 5-0 shutout loss.
But three big swings from Brian Anderson in the nightcap paved the way for Miami to split the doubleheader with a 14-3 win.
Anderson hit three homers in the game, a solo shot in the second and a pair of three-run shots in the fifth and sixth. He joins Mike Lowell and Cody Ross as the only players in Marlins history to hit three home runs in a game. His seven RBI also tie the club’s single-game record
The Marlins remain two games above .500 at 26-24 and are still in second place in the National League East with 10 games to go. They hold a half-game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies, who won a doubleheader over the Toronto Blue Jays, and are three-and-a-half games behind the Atlanta Braves for first place in the division.
“It’s just a mentality this year,” said designated hitter Garrett Cooper, one of the 18 players who tested positive for COVID-19 after the first weekend of the series. “Come in. Do your job. ... It’s just the daily ups and downs. We have a great group. We talk about it every day in our group chat that we have a chance to do something special and a chance to win every day. That’s what we’re coming in to do.”
Miami showed that resiliency in Friday’s finale.
After erasing a two-run deficit with solo home runs from Corey Dickerson in the first and Anderson in the second, the Marlins tacked on four runs in the third and chased Nationals starter Wil Crowe in the process.
The Marlins loaded the bases with one out on back-to-back groundball singles from Dickerson and Starling Marte and a Cooper walk. A four-pitch walk to Jesus Aguilar pushed home the go-ahead run and force Washington to go to its bullpen. Three more runs scored in the frame on a Miguel Rojas bases-loaded fielder’s choice that would have been an inning-ending out at home plate had Nationals catcher Kurt Suzuki held onto and a Lewis Brinson two-run single.
Anderson added his second home run, this time a three-run shot, in the fifth to start a four-run inning.
Castano, making yet another spot start on a doubleheader day, threw 4 1/3 innings and held the Nationals to three runs. He gave up two runs early in the first before settling down to keep Washington scoreless over the second, third and fourth. Marlins manager Don Mattingly pulled him after giving up a one-out triple to Victor Robles in the fifth. Robles eventually scored when Juan Soto hit an RBI single against Yimi Garcia, who finished the inning.
Brad Boxberger and Nick Vincent handled the sixth and seventh innings, respectively.
The road ahead
The margin for error is getting smaller with each passing day.
The final two days of the homestand won’t get much easier on the pitching front. The Nationals are starting Patrick Corbin on Saturday against Pablo Lopez and have Max Scherzer on the mound for one of Sunday’s doubleheader games. Miami has Sandy Alcantara and a to-be-determined starter going on Sunday.
After that, it’s four games in Atlanta against the NL East-leading Braves and three games at the New York Yankees to close out the season.
Sixto’s struggles
Meanwhile, the Nationals came out swinging early and often in the first game, and Sixto Sanchez paid the price.
The Nationals tagged the Marlins’ top prospect for five runs on eight hits over four innings and kept Miami’s bats quiet over the seven-inning contest to win the first game of doubleheader 5-0.
It was Sanchez’s worst outing of his young MLB career. Heading into Friday, the 22-year-old righty had given up six total runs over his first 32 innings. The Nationals nearly matched that tally before recording their first dozen outs.
Sanchez, whose ERA jumped from 1.69 to 2.75 after the start, followed up a nine-pitch scoreless first with a four-hit, two-run second inning and a nine-batter, four-run fourth inning that could have been much worse if he didn’t get Asdrubal Cabrera to hit into an inning-ending fly out with the bases loaded. Five of the eight hits Sanchez gave up happened on either the first or second pitch of an at-bat.
Overall, Sanchez has given up eight earned runs over nine innings against the Nationals over two starts.
In Sanchez’s other four starts, one each against the Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto Blue Jays, Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies, he has given up three earned runs, struck out 25 and held opponents to a .198 batting average in 27 innings of work.
Nationals starter Erick Fedde held the Marlins to one hit over six innings while striking out six. The Marlins only had a runner in scoring position once. Starling Marte reached on a fielder’s choice, stole second and third but was stranded when Matt Joyce flew out to right field. Will Harris capped Miami’s loss with a scoreless seventh, only giving up a one-out hit to Cooper.
This story was originally published September 18, 2020 at 11:04 PM.
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