Rogers deals, Jazz hits a 431-foot home run and Marlins get needed series win vs. Rockies
The Miami Marlins needed some sort of answer to their last two weeks of offensive ineptitude, bullpen meltdowns and frustrating narrow losses.
Their solution was a pair of the best rookies in the Majors.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Trevor Rogers, both 23, were the first two to lead the Marlins onto the field Thursday, hopping over the first-base line and setting up at their critical spots in the diamond. As the shortstop, Chisholm led Miami’s infielders as they threw the ball around the horn while Rogers dug into his place on the mound to make the 20th start of his career. Together, they led the Marlins to an 11-4 rout of the Colorado Rockies on Thursday in Miami.
Rogers held the Rockies to two runs in seven innings — and both came in the seventh after the Marlins already built an 11-0 lead — and Chisholm reached base three times and crushed a three-run home run in the second inning to help Miami (27-35) win for just the fourth time in 15 games.
After dropping 8 of 9 on their most recent road trip, the Marlins began a six-game homestand by taking 2 of 3 from the Rockies (25-38) to win their first series in more than two weeks.
Manager Don Mattingly termed the road trip “a nightmare” and, despite it, Miami remains in the playoff conversation in the tightly packed National League East, sitting seven games behind the first-place New York Mets. The Marlins also have a positive run differential despite sitting eight games below .500 with exactly 100 games left to play in the 2021 MLB season.
Rogers (7-3) held Colorado to two runs on four hits in seven innings with eight strikeouts and just one walk, and his ERA actually rose to 2.02. The early-season frontrunner for the NL Rookie of the Year Award still ranks fourth in the NL in ERA and is now tied for 10th in the league in strikeouts. After going three straight starts without a win despite lasting at least five innings with two earned runs or fewer in each, Rogers finally got help from his offense, led by Chisholm.
“It was a big boost of confidence. It just makes me want to go attack the strike zone even more,” Rogers said. “I don’t really have to nibble on the edges as much. I don’t have to make as perfect of pitches, so I just go out there and really keep the competitiveness up and attack the strike zone.”
It started, though, with Adam Duvall, who belted a two-run home run off Colorado starting pitcher Chi Chi Gonzalez in the bottom of the second inning to give Miami a 2-0 lead. It ballooned once the lineup turned over.
After Rogers struck out with runners on first and second, Chisholm came to the plate with two outs and dug himself into an 0-2 hole by missing on two pitches at the bottom of the zone. On the third pitch of the at-bat, Gonzalez (2-4) left an 86-mph slider right over the heart of the plate and Chisholm punished him. He dropped his hips, twisted his body and tossed the bat to the ground after crushing a three-run homer to the second deck in right field.
“I don’t normally bat flip like that, but it was just in the moment for me,” Chisholm said. “As soon as I hit it, I knew that it was going to be there.”
The ball sailed off the bat at 108.8 mph and traveled 431 feet — the longest home run at loanDepot park this season — to ignite the 4,965 in attendance. The Marlins built a 5-0 lead, then stretched it to 6-0 four pitches later when outfielder Starling Marte crushed a 426-foot home run to left-center.
Gonzalez, who starred at Boca Raton Community High School, lasted five innings and gave up eight earned runs on 11 hits.
Chisholm scored another run in the bottom of the sixth against the Rockies’ bullpen, drawing a leadoff walk, and eventually scoring on a passed ball after he went first to third on a throwing error by Ryan McMahon at third base. He also reached on an infield single in the seventh and is now on a four-game hitting streak, and batting .262 with a .524 slugging percentage and three home runs since returning from the injured list June 1.
Marlins’ Adam Duvall stays hot
Duvall’s second-inning home run to start Miami’s game-breaking frame Thursday was the second in as many games for the outfielder.
Duvall crushed a 398-foot home run to left in the sixth inning of the Marlins’ one-run loss Wednesday to snap a 10-game homer drought. His bat, however, started to come alive Monday and Duvall now has hit safely in four straight games.
The 32-year-old’s batting average crashed to .194 after Miami’s three-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates after he went five straight games without a hit to start June. On Monday, he went 2 for 5 in a loss to the Boston Red Sox, then collected two hits again Tuesday, and home runs Wednesday and Thursday.
Duvall is batting .333 and slugging .722 in his last four games, which is a good sign for one of the streakiest hitters in baseball.
“You go through stretches where you feel better than other times in the season. You just try to put together good at-bats,” Duvall said Wednesday. “My mentality is that when I step into the batter’s box that I’m in scoring position. You look to just get a good pitch in your zone, wherever you’re looking, and you put a good swing on it.”
Braxton Garrett could start again
The Marlins’ pitcher injuries have had them seldom committing to any starting pitchers other than Rogers, Sandy Alcantara and Pablo Lopez this year, and Braxton Garrett was the latest to get a shot in the rotation Wednesday.
In his first start of the year, the rookie went four innings and allowed five hits and three walks, but still limited the damage by holding Colorado to two runs. General manager Kim Ng said Wednesday it was possible Garrett could stick around in the Majors to make a second start if his first one went well enough. On Wednesday, Garrett flashed some promising signs.
The starting pitcher, who’s the organization’s No. 7 prospect in the MLB.com rankings, threw his slider more than 30 percent of the time and allowed one hit while getting three outs with the breaking ball. It helped him make up for a shaky four-steam fastball, which only averaged 89.8 mph and lacked command to leave him behind in the count against 8 of 18 batters he faced.
“I just struggled to get in good counts with my fastball, especially early. I was nitpicking a little bit around the plate when really I should’ve just challenged guys in certain situations,” Garrett said. “When my fastball command is on, anybody can say this, but I’m just a lot tougher to hit. I’m in the zone, I get more chases on my breaking stuff out of the zone when I have good command of my fastball. When I’m spraying around the zone, it’s hard to get swings on anything except balls in the zone, so that’s where I want to get better.”
This story was originally published June 10, 2021 at 10:14 PM.
