Marlins’ Garrett Cooper on a hot streak. What’s working? Plus notes on Jazz, Tanner Scott
.JPG "Miami Marlins Garrett Cooper is congratulated by third base coach Al Pedrique (13) after hitting a home run in the sixth inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants, Sunday, June 5, 2022, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)")
Garrett Cooper has gotten to the point in his MLB career that he doesn’t worry when he finds himself in a hitting slump.
At 31 years old and in his fourth season as an everyday starter with the Miami Marlins, he knows that he’s one hit from starting a new streak.
He’s in the midst of one of those streaks now.
During his past 13 starts, dating to May 21, Cooper is hitting .440 (22 for 50) with two home runs, five doubles, 12 RBI and seven runs scored. He has multiple hits in nine of those 13 games, including three three-hit outings.
This streak has put Cooper among MLB’s top hitters a third of the way through the season.
Entering Monday, Cooper’s .302 batting average ranks 17th in the majors and eighth in the National League. His .373 on-base percentage is 22nd overall (ninth in the NL), and his .835 on-base-plus-slugging mark is 24th overall (11th in the NL).
What has been working?
“Not pulling off things,” Cooper said. “Early on the year, I think I was trying to do a little bit too much, rolling over a lot of balls to third and short. Just staying staying through the ball is a big thing for me. To get my arms extended, even on pitches down and in, I can still keep the hands through the ball to drive to right-center. I’m at my best when I’m hitting the ball to center and right. As you progress throughout the year, you’re gonna have ups and downs. Before you hit a little hot streak, you go through that little cold streak where you have to really break down your swing and break down the path of the ball you’re hitting and know where you’re hitting and the barrel and everything.”
Concern about Jazz?
In the past eight games since returning from a four-game absence in the lineup while dealing with a left hamstring injury, second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. is hitting just .071 (2 for 28). Both of his hits came in the same game — Miami’s 14-1 win over the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday in the first game of their doubleheader at Coors Field.
The slump has dropped Chisholm’s batting average from .290 to .250, and his OPS from .921 to .814.
“It hasn’t been great,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “You never know. Some guys come back [from injury] and they’re smoking right away and usually, if they’re going good when it happens, usually they come back with a decent feel. You felt like the whole time in there, he was hitting and he felt like he was ready during that stretch even before. ... He just hasn’t caught his rhythm again.”
With Chisholm off to a strong start to the season prior to the injury, teams have also begun defending him differently. He’s facing more aggressive shifts, with teams swinging an extra infielder into shallow right field against the lefty. Chisholm has already faced the shift in 121 of 170 of his plate appearances this season (71.2 percent), according to Statcast. Last season, the shift was used against him just 177 times in 506 plate appearances (35 percent).
“The league’s kind of doing some different things to him right now, and he’s gonna need to make adjustments,” Mattingly said. “That’s what happens in his league. ... If you’re hitting, they’re going to figure out different ways to pitch you and try to get you out.”
Tanner Scott making closer case
The Marlins have been playing with a closer-by-committee approach all season, a tactic that has been amplified with Anthony Bender (back stiffness) on the injured list.
That has opened the door for lefty Tanner Scott to get prime looks late in games, and he has delivered as of late.
Mattingly turned to Scott in the ninth inning of both of the Marlins’ two wins of their four-game split with the San Francisco Giants — a 3-0 win on Thursday and 5-4, walk-off win on Saturday.
On Thursday, Scott recorded a perfect inning on 14 pitches, getting Wilmer Flores to line out to right field before striking out both Joc Pederson and Luis Gonzalez to pick up his second save of the season.
On Saturday, he worked around a one-out Brandon Crawford double that fell between Jesus Sanchez and Avisail Garcia in right-center due to a miscommunication between the two outfielders by striking out Thairo Estrada and getting Donovan Walton to pop out to keep the game tied at 4-4 before Sanchez hit a walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom half of the inning.
On the season, Scott has struck out 31 batters over 20 1/3 innings. He has permitted earned runs in just five of his 23 outings.
.JPG)