Miami Marlins sweep doubleheader against Cleveland Guardians. Here’s who stood out
Heading into Saturday’s doubleheader, Miami Marlins manager Skip Schumaker was asked if there were any positive on playing two games in a day this early in a season.
Schumaker took a second to mull over his thoughts before coming up with his answer.
“Everybody’s gonna play. That’s for sure,” Schumaker said. “You want to get guys, try to match up as best as you can, but on the flip side, you don’t want to kill guys over 18 innings. ... There are guys on the bench that get to play.”
Schumaker used just about everyone at his disposal across two games at Progressive Field.
In the end, it resulted in two wins over the Cleveland Guardians — 6-1 in the early game, 3-2 in the nightcap.
With that, the Marlins (12-9) have now won four consecutive series. They will look to get their first sweep when they wrap up their series against the Guardians (10-11) at 1:40 p.m. Sunday.
Here were five Marlins standouts from Saturday’s doubleheader:
▪ Bryan De La Cruz: The outfielder had five extra-base hits — four doubles, one home run — across the two games. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he is the first player in franchise history to have 5 extra-base hits in a single day.
De La Cruz is also on a nine-game hitting streak, which ties the longest of his MLB career. In this nine-game stretch, he is hitting .432 (16 for 37) to bump his overall season average to .328.
“This is one of the things I wanted to show,” De La Cruz said. “I can play every day, be an everyday play and continue doing that to help the team.”
▪ Garrett Hampson: Hampson only played the second game of the doubleheader, but he was active throughout. He had two run-producing hits — an RBI double in the fourth and an RBI single in the sixth — and also scored in the sixth inning on a Garrett Cooper sacrifice fly while playing solid defense at shortstop.
“Felt good out there,” Hampson said. “Got a lot of plays, which is nice to just get involved ... and then came up in big spots [at the plate].”
▪ Devin Smeltzer: The left-handed pitcher started the first game of the doubleheader in place of Sandy Alcantara, whose start was skipped as he deals with mild right biceps tendinitis. Smeltzer threw four innings of one-run ball before handing things over to his bullpen. This came after Smeltzer gave up a pair of two-run home runs on Wednesday.
“I want to pitch every day, especially after the bad ones,” Smeltzer said. “Wanted to get back out there and get a reset. It was nice to get a clean slate.”
▪ Braxton Garrett: Garrett held the Guardians to just one run over 5 2/3 inning. After giving up a two-out RBI single to Oscar Gonzalez in the first, Garrett proceeded to retire 10 consecutive Cleveland hitters and 15 of the final 18 batters he faced overall. Through four outings (three starts) this season, Garrett has a 2.84 ERA.
“Just getting comfortable,” Garrett said. “Last year was a confidence builder, having a good year. This year, it’s just trying to do the same. The anxiety and nervousness maybe isn’t so much before starts.”
▪ The bullpen: The Marlins used all seven of their main relievers across both games. Andrew Nardi (1 1/3 innings), Huascar Brazoban (1 2/3 innings), Matt Barnes (one inning) and Steven Okert (one inning) combined for five scoreless innings in Game 1, while Tanner Scott (2/3 innings), Dylan Floro (1 2/3 innings) and A.J. Puk (one inning) held Cleveland to just one run over 3 1/3 innings.
That’s one run over 8 1/3 innings from Miami’s relievers on Saturday, for those keeping track.
Dating back to April 11, the Marlins’ bullpen has held opponents to six earned runs over 41 innings — good for a 1.32 ERA.
Ejection explanation
Both Schumaker and center fielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. were ejected in the fifth inning of the second game of the doubleheader.
The Marlins were frustrated by the strike zone at various points in that game. During Garrett Cooper’s at-bat to lead off that inning, which ended in a flyout, there was a questionable called strike that the dugout did not disagree with. At one point, Chisholm pointed one of the team’s iPads out to home plate umpire Dan Merzel, a decision the led Merzel to eject Chisholm. Schumaker went out to argue on Chisholm’s behalf and then was ejected himself.
Here’s Schumaker’s full explanation of what unfolded: “Umpires are going to make questionable calls. That’s just part of the game. They’re human. Once Jazz — I don’t think he said anything to get tossed; it’s once you show the iPad on a questionable call, that’s going to get you tossed. The reality is a young umpire, he’s not going to be perfect. We know that, but that’s the reason. He’s got to stay in the game. I told him that. He’s got to stay in the game. I’ll get tossed 100 more times. He’s going to impact the game. I’m not. We’ve discussed that. It’s a learning process for him. He’ll get it. He’ll get it.”
This story was originally published April 22, 2023 at 10:50 PM.
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