‘He’s just always on my mind’: Pablo Lopez honors late father as Marlins beat Cubs
Pablo Lopez had just struck out Javier Baez with an 89.2 mph changeup to end the seventh inning — and end a sterling appearance on the mound for the Miami Marlins against the Chicago Cubs. He couldn’t help but smile as he walked back to the dugout.
Saturday was special for the 25-year-old right-handed pitcher even before he held the Cubs to one hit and two baserunners over seven scoreless innings while the offense mashed four home runs in an 11-1 win at Wrigley Field.
The reason? Sunday is going to be a chance to reflect and remember the man who fostered his love for baseball in the first place.
Sunday is the first Father’s Day that he is spending without his dad Danny Lopez, who died after suffering a heart attack last July. His death was unexpected.
So as Pablo threw pitch after pitch, scoreless inning after scoreless inning, his dad was with him.
“It’s one of those intimate moments,” Pablo, who wore special Father’s Day cleats, said after the game. “It’s hard to keep to yourself, just because I would always picture him. After a good inning, he would stand up and clap his hands. He’s just always on my mind. He’s always there with me.”
Danny Lopez, a doctor, was instrumental in Lopez’s career trajectory, one that saw him sign as an international free agent with the Seattle Mariners in July 2012, make his MLB debut on July 30, 2018, and, almost three years later, find himself evolving into one of the Marlins’ reliable starting pitchers.
“It messed with me emotionally, mentally,” Pablo said, “but at the same time, with his background in the medical field, he was always very straight to the point when it came to that. He was always like, ‘One day, I’m not going to be with you, but I want you to know that I’m still gonna be with you in a way.’ That’s just as true as it gets.
“I’ve been able to feel his presence every day. I think our connection grows stronger and stronger every day.”
The story begins in their hometown of Cabimas, Venezuela, where baseball runs in the Lopez family. As Pablo recalls it, his grandfather, also named Pablo, introduced Danny Lopez to the sport and he “fell in love with the game,” the younger Pablo Lopez said. Danny Lopez played amateur baseball while in college, and Pablo watched his dad play “with the older guys” growing up.
Danny Lopez made sure to share stories about his playing days, like the time he had “a cycle and a half” (one home run, one triple, two doubles and two singles) and when he hit a home run into a pool just beyond one of the stadiums he played at.
“All those sort of stories,” Pablo said.
Danny Lopez began taking Pablo to the baseball field when Pablo was around 6 years old. The hope, at least initially, was that Pablo would be an outfielder like his dad. He stayed with the position until he was 14 and made the decision to pursue baseball full-time.
That didn’t last long.
“I was too slow,” Pablo said. “Then I injured my ankle, and I was even slower.”
The switch to pitching quickly followed, and it has worked for Pablo. Two years after making the switch, he signed with the Mariners as an international free agent. His dad was with him when he signed the contract.
Like his dad, Pablo also has aspirations in the medical field.
But Danny Lopez pushed his son to at least chase his dream of baseball and see what he could make out of it.
“He was very supportive of whatever I was going to choose,” Pablo said. “He was a key factor in choosing baseball because he told me that you could always go back to college if it doesn’t work out, but I know if I would have chosen to go to medical school, the support was going to be the same.”
Pablo spent four-and-a-half years in the Mariners’ system before being traded to the Marlins on July 20, 2017. His MLB debut came less than a year later — six innings, six hits and two runs allowed with five strikeouts in a win over the New York Mets.
Danny Lopez was there for so many of those steps, including flying to Miami for that MLB debut and being in attendance for many of Lopez’s 31 starts during his first two seasons.
“I know he was proud,” Pablo said. “I know he was happy. That’s all I could have ever asked for.”
And that brings it to the present, where Pablo is stringing together quality seasons while keeping his dad on his mind.
He was the only Marlins pitcher to make every scheduled start in 2020 on a team that made the playoffs despite at one point competing without 19 players due to an early-season COVID-19 outbreak. In 11 starts, Lopez set career-best marks in ERA (3.61), walks and hits per inning (1.19), strikeouts per nine innings (9.26), hits allowed per nine innings (7.85) and home runs allowed per nine innings (0.63).
Through 15 starts in 2021, Lopez has bettered on just about all of those marks.
His ERA? 2.86.
His walks and hits per inning pitched? 1.07.
He has eight quality starts, defined as throwing at least six innings while giving up no more than three earned runs. He has pitched at least seven innings in five of his 15 outings so far this year.
“Pablo has always been a bright man,” pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. said in spring training. “He’s always said the right things and he’s known what he’s wanted to do, but not always been capable of doing them. ... There’s more of a willingness in game to go take what he saw and to be able to attack those areas. In the past, he hasn’t always believed that he can do it. That comes with confidence.”
Saturday, emotion and all, was Pablo’s latest stride. He held the Cubs to just one hit — a flare single to left from Eric Sogard that was immediately eliminated by a double play. The Cubs’ only other baserunner when he was on the mound came when Pablo hit Jake Arrieta with a pitch. He retired the final 13 Cubs hitters he faced overall.
And when Pablo looked up to the sky, he knew he had support there.
“He’s as happy as I am with how everything went,” Pablo said.
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