Jazz Chisholm Jr. shows out as Miami Marlins take series against San Francisco Giants
The Miami Marlins on Tuesday introduced a new fan section at loanDepot park called the “Jazz Band.” It’s an homage to Jazz Chisholm Jr., their burgeoning star center fielder who is on the cover of MLB The Show and could be a potential face of baseball long-term should he reach his potential. The group, small but rowdy in right-center field, regularly cheered for Chisholm while he was in the field, including the occasional “MVP” chants.
“It was great,” Chisholm said. “They had a little saxophone. They had everything out there. They had music playing. I heard the Jazz Chisholm song playing out there and everything. They were great, man.”
He showed off some of that potential and gave the select few who sat in the section a couple highlight plays in the Marlins’ 4-2, series-clinching win over the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday. Miami has now won seven of its past nine games.
First, Chisholm hit a go-ahead three-run home run in the fourth inning, sending a near middle-middle Jakob Junis changeup 391 feet to right field to give the Marlins (10-8) their first lead of the game. It was Chisholm’s third home run of the season.
But to Chisholm, the more impressive play came four innings later when he made a running, over-the-shoulder grab at the warning track on a Mike Yastrzemski line drive.
“That was just a blacked-out moment where I just put my head down and just started running for the ball,” Chisholm said. “I saw the ball hit and I literally said ‘I can’t catch this ball’ and I just went and by the time I got to the ball, it was still in the air. That’s all I got.”
Chisholm also stole a base in the eighth, his fifth swipe of the season. He now has at least one hit in nine of his past 11 games.
The plays backed a solid performance from Edward Cabrera, who held the Giants (5-11) to just two runs over six innings. Both runs came on a Yastrzemski home run in the first inning, a frame in which Cabrera gave up three hits.
After that? Cabrera held San Francisco to just three hits and two walks. Cabrera struck out eight — one shy of his single-game career-high. His changeup induced 13 whiffs on 24 swings and Giants hitters failed to make contact on 21 of their 49 swings against him overall.
Tanner Scott, Dylan Floro and A.J. Puk did the rest, tossing a combined three scoreless innings out of the bullpen. Puk earned his third save of the season.
The Marlins scored their first run in the third inning on a Jon Berti sacrifice fly that scored Jacob Stallings, who led off the inning with a double and moved to third on a Jean Segura sacrifice bunt.
This and that
▪ Jorge Soler logged his first three-hit game of the season and just his third overall since signing with the Marlins last season.
▪ Luis Arraez logged his ninth multi-hit game of the season.
▪ The Marlins have now won three consecutive series. They took two of three games against both the Philadelphia Phillies and Arizona Diamondbacks. Miami can log its first sweep of the season with a win on Sunday.
This story was originally published April 18, 2023 at 9:08 PM.
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