Miami Marlins, after using 10 pitchers, fall to New York Mets in 12 innings
The Miami Marlins’ plan for a bullpen day was taken to the extreme on Friday. The pitcher manager Don Mattingly planned to throw multiple innings managed just three outs before leaving with an injury.
The 10 pitchers the Marlins sent to the mound at loanDepot park did their job until they were asked to give one inning too many.
The offense backed up the pitchers’ performances late to force extra innings but couldn’t get the decisive, game-winning hit.
Garrett Cooper hit a game-tying home run in the seventh inning — his second home run in as many games — but the Mets rallied for three runs in the 12th to beat the Marlins 6-5 on the day the Marlins debuted their City Connect uniforms that pay homage to Latin American baseball and specifically the former Havana Sugar Kings.
The Marlins are 20-24, while the Mets improve to 21-17.
“It hurts once it’s over,” Mattingly said following the four-hour, 38-minute game that started about 15 hours after the team arrived back in Miami following a three-city, 10-game road trip.
Khalil Lee scored the go-ahead run with a one-out RBI double to right — his first career MLB hit. Johneshwy Fargas gave the Mets a pair of insurance runs in the next at-bat with a two-run triple on a ball that skipped past a diving Adam Duvall. Fargas was thrown out at home trying for an inside-the-park home run.
All three runs came against Adam Cimber, the Marlins’ final relief pitcher who was working his second inning.
Miami got back within one run in the bottom of the 12th when Miguel Rojas’ RBI single up the middle scored Magneuris Sierra and Jazz Chisholm Jr. scored from third after Corey Dickerson grounded into a double play. Adam Duvall flew out to left to end the game.
But the Marlins had their share of opportunities to take the lead after Cooper tied it in the seventh.
They loaded the bases with two outs in the eighth but Cooper struck out swinging.
Leon led off the ninth inning with a walk, and Sierra sliced a single into shallow right to put runners on first and second against Jeurys Familia with no outs. Pinch-hitter Jesus Aguilar popped out. Chisholm lined out. Rojas struck out.
In the 10th, Rojas — the automatic runner at second base to begin the inning — made it to third base on a passed ball with one out, but Duvall and Anderson both struck out swinging against Edwin Diaz.
And in the 11th, Cimber nearly had the walk-off hit when he sliced a 95.3 mph four-seam fastball at the top of the zone from Drew Smith to right-center field, only for it to be caught by Cameron Maybin.
“We gave ourselves some chances,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said “Really just weren’t able to scratch for that run we needed.”
The Marlins’ pitching situation
Jordan Holloway, who was a starter his last two times on the mound, was expected to throw multiple innings out of the bullpen after John Curtiss threw the first inning — a frame in which the Mets scored two runs on a Francisco Lindor RBI double and a Sierra throwing error after a Dominic Smith flyout.
Holloway lasted just one scoreless inning, retiring all three Mets batters he faced on 18 pitches before being removed from the game with right groin soreness. Mattingly didn’t have an immediate update postgame on the severity of Holloway’s injury, but said he doesn’t think it’s major or that he “ripped the thing apart.”
“It was just tightening up and it wasn’t loosening,” Mattingly said.
What followed afterward:
▪ Left-handed pitcher Ross Detwiler threw six pitches in a scoreless third and recorded a groundball single in the bottom half of the inning before being replaced.
▪ Right-handed pitcher Zach Pop gave up a run on two hits and a walk while striking out two in the fourth. A quick throw from Sierra in center field and a quick tag from Sandy Leon prevented a second run from scoring.
▪ Left-handed pitcher Richard Bleier retired the side in order in the fifth on seven pitches (six strikes) but was replaced for a pinch-hitter in the bottom half of the inning.
▪ Right-handed pitcher Anthony Bender threw a pair of perfect innings, retiring all six Mets batters he faced on 21 pitches in the sixth and seventh innings.
▪ Right-handed pitcher Anthony Bass needed nine pitches to retire all three batters he faced in the eighth, getting help from a leaping Jazz Chisholm Jr., who robbed Jonathan Villar of a base hit.
▪ Right-handed pitcher Yimi Garcia recorded a perfect ninth inning with a pair of groundouts and a flyout.
▪ Right-handed pitcher Dylan Floro worked around a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the 10th when Villar hit a groundball to the right side that Cooper scooped up and flipped to a sprinting Floro who covered first for the inning-ending out.
▪ Cimber worked around a leadoff single that put runners on the corners in the 11th by picking off Villar at third and getting both Maybin and Smith to pop out in foul territory.
That’s one run on four hits from eight pitchers over the ensuing nine innings after Holloway’s unexpected exit before the Mets rallied.
“Guys kept pitching,” Mattingly said.
If the game were to have gone to a 13th inning, catcher Chad Wallach would have been on the mound. Mattingly didn’t want to put any of the four starting pitchers — Sandy Alcantara (pitched Thursday), Trevor Rogers (pitched Wednesday), Cody Poteet (threw a bullpen pregme Friday) or Pablo Lopez (pitching Saturday) — in that situation
“We were out of bullets,” Mattingly said.
Mattingly anticipates roster moves being made prior to Saturday’s 4:10 p.m. start to bring in some pitching reinforcements.
Even with that, the Marlins’ offense remained within striking distance after Mets starter Marcus Stroman held Miami to just one run over the first six innings — a Leon sacrifice fly that scored Duvall in the second.
Cooper pounced in the seventh. He sent a 90.6 mph changeup from reliever Miguel Castro a projected 384 feet to left field to tie the game.
But the Marlins went 2 for 13 with runners in scoring position afterward.
Injury updates
▪ Right-handed pitcher Elieser Hernandez (right biceps) is scheduled to make a second rehab start on Sunday with the Triple A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp. Hernandez threw three scoreless innings in his first rehab start on Tuesday, striking out four and not allowing a hit while throwing 44 pitches.
▪ Outfielder Starling Marte (fractured left rib) took batting practice on the field at loanDepot park pregame Friday.
▪ Catcher Jorge Alfaro (left hamstring) was the designated hitter for the Jumbo Shrimp on Friday and is scheduled to catch for the Triple A club on Saturday with as he continues his rehab assignment.
▪ Right-handed pitcher Sixto Sanchez (right shoulder) continues to throw on flat ground from 120 feet.
▪ Right-handed pitcher Edward Cabrera (right biceps) is scheduled to throw a 20-pitch live batting practice session on Saturday.
▪ Outfielder Lewis Brinson (left middle finger sprain) is not participating in baseball activities at the moment.
This story was originally published May 21, 2021 at 11:54 PM.
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