Marlins make statement by taking 5 of 7 from Phillies. Now playoff odds are looking good
Will there ever come a day this season when the Miami Marlins are thought of as something more than just a cute story? Can there come a point when the Marlins aren’t just the team that has overcome so much, but instead are the team that can do be a real factor in the MLB postseason?
If it’s going to happen, this weekend should have shifted the perspective. Miami hosted the Philadelphia Phillies for the first regular-season seven-game series since 1967 and took 5 of 7, including a 6-2 win Monday at Marlins Park. Miami entered Thursday 1 1/2 games behind the Phillies for second place in the National League East and finished Monday 1 1/2 ahead of the division rival.
With less than two weeks left in the season, the Marlins are in firm control of a playoff spot and ready to try to chase down the first-place Atlanta Braves.
“We know that everybody just thinks were the Marlins. It’s kind of like a stigma,” outfielder Corey Dickerson said. “We know how much talent we have. The depth is crazy and people will start to realize it.”
On Sunday, Miami showed off its organizational pitching depth. Sixto Sanchez continued to make his case for the NL Rookie of the Year award by throwing a seven-inning complete game to win Game 1 of a doubleheader, then fellow starting pitcher Braxton Garrett made the trip down from Jupiter for the day to throw five innings of one-run ball to win Game 2 before heading right back up to the alternate training site.
The Marlins’ clinched a statement series victory by leaning on rookie pitchers and exciting young performers, most of them pressed into duty by a COVID-19 outbreak in July. The veterans, most of whom have spent all year in the Majors, took care of seventh and final game of the series to keep Miami (24-21) in second place.
Dickerson, first baseman Jesus Aguilar, shortstop Miguel Rojas, and outfielders Starling Marte and Matt Joyce — the five oldest position players on the active roster — combined for seven hits, six runs, four RBIs and two home runs to help the Marlins rally to beat Philadelphia (23-23) behind Pablo Lopez, the second most experienced starter on the active roster.
“You have the mixture of the young guys, so it’s good to have that presence within your club both ways, for the clubhouse and for the field,” manager Don Mattingly said. “I think we’re getting it on both ends of that.”
Lopez (4-4) shrugged off a leadoff homer by Andrew McCutchen and sailed through seven one-run innings. The right-handed pitcher gave up just three hits and struck out six to bounce back after giving up 12 runs across 5 2/3 innings in his last two starts.
Miami quickly got the run back in the bottom of the second. Joyce led off with a single against starting pitcher Vince Velasquez and rookie middle infielder Jazz Chisholm sent him home with another. In the third, the Marlins jumped ahead for good when Dickerson, Marte and Aguilar led off with three straight hits against Velasquez (0-1) as Aguilar sent both home with a double.
An inning later, third baseman Brian Anderson doubled home Rojas, and Rojas and Marte each added solo homers in the late innings to seal a third straight win.
With the veterans performing and a loaded rookie class injecting energy, Miami has a better than 80 percent chance to make the eight-team NL playoffs, according to FanGraphs.
“You can’t be flying around after this series like something’s happened,” Mattingly said. “Right now, I expect us to play well tomorrow night. I trust our guys. That’s the one thing that I do and they’ve showed me all year long that you can trust them. It’s one of the best things you can say as a manager, that I trust they’ll be ready to play. We’ve got a tough road still.”
On Sunday alone, the Marlins’ playoff odds spiked by 33.0 percent, according to Baseball-Reference.com. In the last week, their odds have climbed more than any other team, jumping 49.7 percent in the last seven days entering Monday. No other team’s odds had risen even 15 percent.
This is even with two of Miami’s worst losses of the season mixed into the last week. On Wednesday, the Marlins gave up 29 runs in a blowout loss to the Braves. On Friday, Miami lost by 11 in the seven-inning first game of a doubleheader. The Marlins bounced back and won the second game, then bounced back from a six-run loss Saturday to win the final three games of the series.
“It says we have a good team. We really do. We like the guys that we have and even more so we feel like we have a lot of depth that’s going to help us get us where we want to go,” Joyce said. “We’re in a good spot right now. That was a huge series for us.”
The win Monday will keep Miami within at least 3 1/2 games of Atlanta with a four-game series between the two set to begin next Monday at Truist Park. The Marlins, currently sitting as the No. 5 seed, will also remain within at least six games of the No. 4-seed San Diego Padres.
The schedule doesn’t relent. Miami opens a three-game series with the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday, then plays five games in three days against the Washington Nationals starting Friday befoe the trip to Georgia. The Marlins then wrap up with a three-game series against the New York Yankees.
After 18 cases of COVID in July and more 40 games of defying the odds, Miami is now just playing up to its own internal expectations. It’s up to everyone on the outside to catch up.
“I kind of hope that people are giving us a little bit more credit because we do have a good team,” Joyce said. “You kind of get labeled and branded something because of the past, and, man, we’ve got a lot of new guys. We’ve got a different team. We’ve got a different feel in this clubhouse and it’s not the same team. It’s not the same organization. They’re making really good strides. They’re bringing in the right pieces, the right players and they want to win.
This story was originally published September 14, 2020 at 6:58 PM.
