In heavyweight showdown vs. Ronald Acuna and Atlanta, Jazz Chisholm leads Marlins to win
Jazz Chisholm Jr. woke up Friday, decided he needed to dye his hair purple to honor Kobe Bryant and then he went toe to toe against Ronald Acuna Jr. to lift the Miami Marlins to one of their best wins of the first half of the 2021 MLB season.
It was just another day for one of the brightest young stars in baseball.
He led off for the Marlins and Acuna led off for the Atlanta Braves, and, for nine innings, they traded blows in an early-season meeting between playoff hopefuls. It was as close as the sport can get to 1-on-1, isolation basketball. Acuna put the Braves ahead and Chisholm answered with a game-tying hit. Acuna put Atlanta ahead again and Chisholm answered with a go-ahead hit. In the end, Chisholm, 23, had the upper hand with a 4-3 win.
“Every time I play against the Braves and I see him out there, I say I’ve got to win. I’m not going to lie. It’s something about him on the other side and knowing that he’s probably best player in the league right now,” Chisholm said. “Every time he gets a hit, I go up to the box and be like, I can’t let him show me up. I’ve got to do it, too.”
The middle infielder went 2 for 3 with a walk and two RBIs, and twice helped the Marlins (28-35) battle back from early deficits before delivering the game-winning hit in the fourth inning.
Acuna, also 23 and the early-season frontrunner for the National League Most Valuable Player Award, was spectacular with two hits, a walk, two runs and an RBI double. Chisholm, a contender for the NL Rookie of the Year Award, matched him blow for blow to get a series-opening win in front of 6,595 at loanDepot park.
Miami’s win to start a three-game series against the Braves (29-32) guarantees at least a .500 homestand. After the Marlins lost 8 of 9 on their most recent road trip, they returned home Tuesday and took 2 of 3 from the Colorado Rockies for their first series win in more than two weeks. Now they’re back on track with three wins in four games to remain seven games behind the first-place New York Mets in the NL East.
It is too early in the year — and Miami still too injured — for any series, even one against a fierce rival in a division race with five teams separated by merely seven games, to mean all too much. The Marlins has 99 games left in their season, including 55 more against divisional opponents and 14 against Atlanta.
They’re also trying to make sure the race doesn’t get too far away from them, though. The “nightmare” road trip, as manager Don Mattingly termed it, temporarily plunged Miami into the NL East cellar after they began the trip just three games out of first place. The Braves, whom Mattingly constantly refers to as “measuring stick” in the NL East, sit in third place, five back of the Mets and just two ahead of the fourth-place Marlins.
Atlanta is the class of the division, in Mattingly’s opinion, mostly because it’s the two-time defending champion, but it’s also rife with some of the Majors’ biggest stars. Acuna is the MVP favorite and star first baseman Freddie Freeman won the award last year. Second baseman Ozzie Albies is on track to go to his second MLB All-Star Game and slugging third baseman Austin Riley could go to his first. Charlie Morton, the Braves’ starting pitcher Friday, was an All-Star in 2018 and 2019, and Max Fried, their probable starting pitcher for Saturday, finished fifth in NL Cy Young Award voting last season.
Chisholm, though, was as productive a hitter as there was on the field and starting pitcher Sandy Alcantara outdueled Morton on the mound.
Morton lasted just four innings before Miami chased him from the game. Alcantara (4-5) pitched six. Morton (5-3) gave up four runs on four hits and four walks. Alcantara held Atlanta to one run in the top of the first, another in the top of the second and then nothing else — a two-run, five-hit outing with six strikeouts to give the Marlins back-to-back wins for the first time in nearly three weeks.
Acuna, though, landed the first blow by drawing a five-pitch walk from Alcantara to lead off the game. The superstar outfielder, then stole second base, went to third on a groundout by Freeman and scored when Albies lashed a single into right field to put the Braves ahead 1-0.
A few minutes later, Chisholm countered with a leadoff single against an 0-2 count. Miami eventually loaded the bases and outfielder Adam Duvall tied the game 1-1 on a sacrifice fly to right.
“It’s pretty talented dudes right there at the top of both clubs. They’re dynamic,” Mattingly said. “Jazz is at the beginning of it. Obviously, Acuna’s a couple years in now and looking pretty polished at everything he does, but those guys are exciting. They’re fun to watch. They’re getting on base all over the field.”
Acuna and Albies put Atlanta back ahead in the seventh, when Acuna ripped a one-out double to left field and scored on another double by Albies, but the the Marlins answered back with three in the fourth to jump ahead of the Braves for good.
It started with the bottom of the order. Isan Diaz drew a one-out walk and Jorge Alfaro got hit by a pitch to move the utility infielder into scoring position, then utility player Jon Berti tied the game on a single to left.
The lineup turned over after Alcantara struck out, which meant Chisholm came back to the plate with the go-ahead run in scoring position. He took a fastball over the heart of the plate and Morton tested him again. On the second look, Chisholm shortened his swing and sliced a single the opposite way, into left field against the Braves’ shift, to send Alfaro and Berti home, and give Miami a 4-2 lead.
“It’s in a basketball aspect when I play against Acuna. It’s not really 1-on-1. It’s about who’s going to make their team win today,” Chisholm said. “He’s going to get his, and I’m going to be on the other side and get mine, and then it’s going to be like who’s going to be the one to help their team win the game?”
Chisholm’s hitting streak now stands at five games, and he’s 9 of 21 with a .458 on-base percentage and .619 slugging percentage in those five games. He ended the bottom of the eighth in the on-deck circle, missing out on one more chance to do damage.
Acuna came to the plate in the top of the ninth as the go-ahead run with Braves corner infielder Pablo Sandoval on base. He took three massive hacks — home-run swings — at three fastballs by relief pitcher Yimi Garcia and struck out on three pitches.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun series and I wouldn’t want to play with nobody else, honestly. It’s fun going up against him,” Chisholm said. “He has the excitement that I want to be and I want to go on the field every day, and be like, OK, bet. You think you’re going to do this to my team? I’m going to come back and do it to your team now. It’s cool.”
Injury updates
Sixto Sanchez, Miguel Rojas and Brian Anderson are all taking significant steps in their recoveries, and Rojas could be back in live action as early as this weekend.
The shortstop expects to begin a rehab assignment this weekend with Triple A Jacksonville, he said, and still hopes to rejoin the active roster next week on the Marlins’ six-game road trip. Rojas, who fractured his left index finger last month, hit during batting practice for the second straight days and his been taking grounders on the field since Tuesday.
Anderson, meanwhile, was out on the field for stretching Thursday and is progressing toward a return, although Mattingly said he’s still a bit behind Rojas in his recovery.
“I’m not sure exactly when everything starts for him, but he’s a little further behind Miggy,” Mattingly said. “Andy really is at the point where he’s still strengthening, not really been freed up to take BP or ground balls.”
Sanchez’s throwing program continues to progress in Jupiter and he is now cleared to start throwing from 60 feet. The starting pitcher has yet to appear in live action this season after injuring his shoulder in spring training and going through a pair of setbacks. Miami expected him to begin the 2021 MLB season as part of its rotation and hoped the starter, who’s the No. 12 overall prospect in MLB.com’s rankings, would contend for the NL Rookie of the Year Award.
Two other pitchers are slated for rehab starts this weekend: Jordan Holloway was scheduled to pitch Friday for the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, while Edward Cabrera is set to start Saturday for Low A Jupiter.
Alfaro, however, left the Marlins’ win Friday with a left elbow contusion after he was hit by a pitch in the fourth inning. X-rays were negative and the catcher is day-to-day.
Up next
Miami will continue its three-game series against the Braves at 4:10 p.m. in South Florida
Fried will be on the mound for Atlanta. The Marlins have not announced a starter and could go with a bullpen game.
This story was originally published June 11, 2021 at 10:34 PM.
