Grand slam puts Marlins in early hole as Miami splits four-game series with Giants
%20(1).JPG "Miami Marlins pitcher Braxton Garrett aims a pitch during the first inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants, Sunday, June 5, 2022, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)")
Braxton Garrett had maneuvered his way three scoreless innings in his season debut for the Miami Marlins on Sunday, working around a pair of hit by pitches, a pair of softly hit singles and an elevated pitch count to keep the San Francisco Giants off the board early.
The left-handed pitcher’s outing then unraveled in the fourth, and the Marlins fell 5-1 to split their four-game series with the Giants at loanDepot park. Miami (22-30) beat the Giants (29-24) 3-0 on Thursday and 5-4 on Saturday while dropping their game on Friday 15-6 heading into Sunday’s finale.
Garrett, the No. 21 prospect in the Marlins’ system according to MLB Pipeline, kept the Giants at bay until he allowed three consecutive San Francisco hitters to reach base with one out in the fourth on Thairo Estrada and Jason Vosler singles and a walk to Curt Casali.
Pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. then made a mound visit in an attempt to help calm Garrett down before he faced left-handed hitter Donovan Walton.
Stottlemyre’s message to Garrett: That’s your guy. Go get him.
But one pitch later, Garrett’s 72nd and final of the game, Walton sent a slider near the heart of the plate a projected 421 feet to right-center for his first career grand slam to give the Giants an early 4-0 lead.
“It’s hard to ever say if the pitch was the wrong pitch if it’s not executed,” Garrett said. “It was a bad slider. Whether that was the right pitch or not, it was a hanger.”
It was an ugly end to an otherwise fine start to that point for Garrett. He struck out five batters and worked out of a pair of jams in the first and second innings that pushed his pitch count up to 43 by the time he recorded his first six outs.
With Garrett still not too far removed from a shoulder injury that sidelined him temporarily in the minor leagues, his outing on Sunday was going to be capped around 75 pitches, meaning Walton likely would have been his final batter in the fourth inning regardless of the outcome.
Manager Don Mattingly was pleased overall with Garrett’s outing and said Garrett will most likely remain in the rotation for at least one more start.
“Just that one pitch,” Mattingly said. “Leaves that slider right there. Sure he wasn’t trying to throw it right there, but that’s a mistake pitch that you’re trying to get away from a guy and didn’t do it. But I thought his mix was good. He elevated the fastball, so I thought he was actually good.”
Garrett said he felt more comfortable on the mound Sunday than he did during any of his previous 10 big league outings over the past two years.
“The nerves weren’t quite there as much as they had been in the past,” Garrett said. “My preparation’s a lot better with video and heat maps and things like that. I’ve learned a lot what to look for and things like that.”
The Marlins’ bullpen Tommy Nance, Dylan Floro, Richard Bleier, Anthony Bass and Cole Sulser combined to hold the Giants to just one run — an Austin Slater single in the eighth that drove in Casali — over the final 5 2/3 innings. This included Nance escaping a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the fifth.
But the Marlins’ offense failed to generate any momentum against Giants starter Jakob Junis. Miami scored its only run against him on a Garrett Cooper solo home run in the sixth, his fourth home run of the season. Other than that, Junis allowed just three base runners; Miguel Rojas reached base twice on a single and a walk and Jorge Soler added a walk as well. Junis struck out a career-high eight batters.
“He kept us off balance out there,” Mattingly said.
The Marlins’ had two late chances to chip into their deficit against San Francisco’s bullpen. Jon Berti and Cooper hit back-to-back two-out singles against Tyler Rogers in the eighth before the threat ended with a Jorge Soler groundout. In the ninth, Jesus Aguilar led off with a double, but Camilo Doval retired Avisail Garcia, Jesus Sanchez and Rojas in order after that to end the game.
Cooper now has multiple hits in seven of his last nine games and has a team-high .302 batting average.
Up next
The Marlins are off Monday before capping their homestand with a three-game series with the Washington Nationals. Miami’s projected starting pitchers for the series are Edward Cabrera (1-0, 0.00) on Tuesday, Sandy Alcantara (6-2, 1.81) on Wednesday and Trevor Rogers (2-5, 5.80) on Thursday.
The Marlins have won five of six games against the Nationals so far this season.
This story was originally published June 5, 2022 at 4:52 PM.
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