Marlins edge Cubs to pick up first sweep of season, cap strong month of April
Luis Arraez continues to deliver for the Marlins even when he’s not getting hits.
And that’s a major reason the Marlins just completed one of their best months of April in franchise history.
Arraez drove in two runs and his sacrifice fly to score Jon Berti in the bottom of the eighth inning propelled the Marlins to a 4-3 win over the Chicago Cubs and the team’s first series sweep of the season.
Miami (16-13) won 15 games in April - its second-most wins in that month in franchise history and only the fifth time it has won that many or more. It was the Marlins’ best record in April since going 16-9 in 2011.
The Marlins also won their fourth consecutive game - all by one run. Miami is 10-0 in such games this season and its last five victories have been by one run.
“For the most part these guys have been really good in different roles and whatever we’ve thrown at them,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “That’s the most impressive part whether it’s a pitcher or a position player, whatever role we’ve put them in, they’ve grabbed a hold of it and dominated it.”
While it’s still very early in the season, Miami is staying close to the leaders in the NL East.
Beating those leaders is a puzzle they will have to figure out as the season progresses though as the Marlins are 3-8 against the Mets and Braves and improved to 13-5 vs. all other teams.
But the acquisition of Arraez, last year’s American League batting champion, who is now hitting .438 through 102 plate appearances for the season is giving them a chance so far.
“The way he’s going about it you just know he’s going to put the ball in play or he’s going to hit it hard somewhere,” Schumaker said. “Righty or lefty, it doesn’t matter. You want him up as many times as you can in the game. We’ve put him leadoff, in the 3 or 4 (spots), whatever, he’s coming through wherever we put him.”
Arraez shattered the Marlins record for batting average to start a season through April by a player with 75 or more plate appearances set by Dee-Strange Gordon in 2015 (.409).
“It’s good because we’re winning, but personally it’s amazing,” Arraez said. “I’ve worked hard for this and I just thank God. I hit .600 when I was a kid, but this is the big leagues. I’m just going out there and playing hard.”
The Marlins let three one-run leads slip away on Sunday.
Cody Bellinger homered for the second consecutive game against reliever Andrew Nardi in the sixth with a 392-foot blast to right field to tie the game at 3.
But after Jon Berti walked and Jesus Sanchez singled to start the eighth, Arraez lobbed a fly ball deep to left center to put Miami ahead for good.
The Marlins’ bullpen did an effective job beyond the Bellinger homer as Matt Barnes, Tanner Scott and AJ Puk combined for three scoreless innings to finish the game. Puk picked up his fifth save.
Marlins relievers have now pitched 115 1/3 innings this season, and before Sunday’s game had pitched the fourth-most innings by any bullpen in the majors behind the Rays, A’s, Red Sox and Rockies.
Marlins starter Bryan Hoeing’s third career start and second this season was much better than his first two as he threw five innings, allowing two runs on five hits with one walk and four strikeouts on 87 pitches.
“I think as a starter the goal is to go as far as you can to give the bullpen a bit of a break,” Hoeing said. “To have the bullpen help me secure the win was huge. To be a good team, you have to win one-run games so to get a sweep against a solid Cubs team was huge. Hopefully, we take some of that momentum over to the Braves (series).”
Garrett Cooper exited the game after the fourth inning with an upset stomach according to the Marlins.
Arraez took his place at first playing there for the first time as a Marlin with Berti moving over to second and Garrett Hampson to short and Sanchez playing right field and hitting second.
Hampson went 2 for 3 with an RBI and Berti went 2 or 3 with two runs scored.
This story was originally published April 30, 2023 at 2:27 PM.
