Lopez gives up two homers and offense falls flat. Marlins down 2-0 in NLDS to Braves
Pablo Lopez had been in this spot before this season. The one to light a spark, to snap a bad streak, to get the momentum rolling in the Miami Marlins’ favor again.
It made his role, at least on paper, as Game 2 starter in the Marlins’ National League Division Series on Wednesday that much more fitting after dropping the opener to the Atlanta Braves the night before.
Two bad pitches and no support from his offense, however, spoiled Lopez’s latest chance to be the Marlins’ savior.
And now, the Marlins are down to their final chance to keep their season alive.
The Braves hit a pair of solo home runs, first Dansby Swanson in the second, then Travis d’Arnaud in the fourth, to beat the Marlins 2-0 in Game 2 of the best-of-5 series at Houston’s Minute Maid Park. Miami will now need to win three consecutive games, starting Wednesday with Sixto Sanchez on the mound, to keep their postseason hopes alive.
“We’ve been battle-tested, but we’ve kept the same mentality through it” utility player Jon Berti said. “Nothing’s going to change from our standpoint. ... Just another challenge for us to overcome.”
Swanson turned on a 94.8 mph fastball that leaked outside and sent it 403 feet to left-center field to open scoring. d’Arnaud’s home run came on a changeup that also missed just outside. The Braves catcher sent the ball 405 feet to left.
“They put really good swings on it” Lopez said. “... They were just pitches that ran into their swing paths. Once they hit it, we know they hit the ball hard.”
Added Marlins manager Don Mattingly: Sometimes you get away with them. Sometimes you don’t. Today, those two, he wasn’t able to get away with those.”
Those two mistakes overshadowed the good from Lopez, the Marlins’ only starting pitcher who has been on the active roster the entire season.
Lopez, pitching in his first career postseason game and on the mound in a live game for the first time since Sept. 24 against this same Braves team, held Atlanta to just three hits over five innings of work while striking out seven and not allowing a walk. Six of his seven strikeouts came with his changeup, which he used more than any other pitch on Wednesday against a strong fastball-hitting Braves lineup.
“Pablo obviously, was really good,” Mattingly said. “[Even with] however many days he had off, I thought he was sharp.”
He got himself out of trouble, too.
There was the third inning, when he gave up a leadoff double to Nick Markakis only to respond by striking out Austin Riley and Ronald Acuna Jr. and getting Freddie Freeman to ground out to Jon Berti in the shift. Lopez lifted his hands up in the air and smiles as he watched Berti throw to first baseman Garrett Cooper for the inning-ending out.
And there was the fifth inning, when Adam Duvall reached base to lead off the inning when his ground ball to third base bounced off Brian Anderson’s glove. Lopez struck out each of the next three batters, all swinging. The final strikeout was to Acuna, the third time in as many at-bats that Lopez got Acuna to strike out swinging on Wednesday.
The performance was reminiscent of a few of Lopez’s other key performances this year.
Like when he threw five shutout innings against the Baltimore Orioles on Aug. 4, the Marlins’ first game back on the field after a week in quarantine due to their COVID-19 outbreak.
Or Aug. 24, when he held the Washington Nationals to three runs (all unearned) while the offense jumped out to an early lead and Miami held on for an 11-8 win to snap a five-game losing streak.
Or like his final three starts of the regular season, all wins, to keep the Marlins on a path to make the playoffs. He held opponents to a .136 batting average and posted a 1.56 ERA (three earned runs in 17 1/3 innings) in that span. That included five shutout innings against the Braves in his final start of the regular season.
“You guys have heard me talk a lot about Sandy [Alcantara] and what happened last year. We felt like the second half, where he’s taking a big jump forward and all of a sudden you just see a different guy and confidence. I think the same thing happened to Pablo and it seemed like it happened in between kind of spring and summer,” Mattingly explained pregame. “We continued to work on stuff but we came back for the summer and it was just like everything got through to him. It’s like he had confidence in his delivery and everything else. ... We’re seeing is this a guy that’s confident in his stuff, what he wants to do to work, continuing to change, making adjustments to what he’s trying to do in starts. It’s just the growth of a guy that we think is going to be a really good pitcher for a long time.”
Lopez gave the Marlins’ offense plenty of chances Wednesday, but the Marlins failed to capitalize. The Braves, led by 5 2/3 scoreless innings from rookie starting pitcher Ian Anderson, held Miami to just three hits and eight baserunners.
They had runners on first and second with two outs in the first only for Garrett Cooper to fly out to end the inning.
Brian Anderson hit a one-out double in the fourth but was stranded on a Cooper flyout and Matt Joyce popout.
They loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth but got nothing out of it with Joyce tapping the first ball he saw from reliever Darren O’Day to Freddie Freeman at first base to end the inning.
And in the eighth, Corey Dickerson reached on a fielding error to lead off the inning but was thrown out when Berti’s fly ball dropped in right field in front of Markakis, who quickly threw to Swanson covering second for the force out. Jesus Aguilar struck out and Brian Anderson grounded out to end the inning.
“We didn’t get a lot going,” Mattingly said.
Now, the Marlins are down to their last chance to get things going.
This story was originally published October 7, 2020 at 4:59 PM.
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