Luis Arraez breaks out of slump with five-hit game in Marlins’ win over Nationals
Luis Arraez was looking to break out of his mini slump, a three-game stretch in which the Miami Marlins’ hit-collecting second baseman was held without a hit.
So when the Marlins got to Nationals Park on Friday to begin a three-game series with the Washington Nationals, he said he was going to have at least four hits.
Arraez lived up to his word. He went 5 for 5 with three RBI and two runs scored in the Marlins’ 6-5 win over the Nationals.
“A lot of people I guess were worried about a three-game stretch,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said, “but you knew he was going to snap out of it. I mean, it’s three games. He’s going to have a three-game stretch [without a hit], too, so I don’t want people to freak out when that happens again. But yeah. He set the tone today, no doubt about it.”
Garrett Cooper’s pinch-hit, two-out, RBI infield single in the eighth inning scored Yuli Gurriel from second base for the go-ahead run. Miami improves to 39-31. The Nationals fall to 27-41.
Friday was Arraez’s second five-hit game of the season, with the other coming on June 3 against the Oakland Athletics. He is just the second player in Marlins history to have multiple five-hit games in a season. The other was Juan Pierre in 2005.
The feat came after Arraez went without a hit in all three games of the Marlins’ previous series against the Seattle Mariners. He went 0 for 13 with a walk and hit-by-pitch in those games. It was the longest stretch of games this season for Arraez without a hit, the first time he went three consecutive starts without a hit since Aug. 21-23, 2022, and the first time he went an entire series without a hit since Sept. 10-12, 2021.
“I forgot the series in Seattle,” Arraez said. “I’m human. I try to get a hit every day. [The Mariners] threw to me really good. It’s a long season. We’re human. This is baseball. This is a new series. It’s a new game. It’s a new day. This is beautiful. 5 for 5.”
And each of Arraez’s first three hits contributed to the Marlins scoring their first five runs of the game.
Arraez led off the game with a single up the middle for his first hit since the third inning Sunday against the Chicago White Sox. He and Jorge Soler, who followed with a walk, would end up scoring on a Jesus Sanchez single to shallow left field.
Arraez then hit his second home run of the season — a two-run, 383-foot shot to right field — in the second inning before adding an RBI single in the fourth and two more leadoff singles in the seventh and ninth innings.
The effort bumped his batting average for the season up 12 points from .378 to .390. He is attempting to become the first MLB player since Ted Williams in 1941 to finish a season with a .400 batting average.
“Baseball is hard. Hitting .400 is hard — even hitting .300 is hard — but it’s not impossible,” Arraez said. “I just go out there and want to get a hit every at-bat. I just try to put the ball in play and try to do something for my team.”
Miami needed all the offense it could muster after another rough outing from starting pitcher and reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara.
Alcantara gave up five runs on a season-high-tying 10 hits over 5 1/3 innings, an outing that pushed his ERA for the season to 4.97. It was the fourth time in 14 starts this season that Alcantara gave up at least five earned runs after doing so just three times total last season.
He was pulled with runners on first and second and one out in the sixth inning with the game tied 5-5. Andrew Nardi stranded both runners and then threw a scoreless seventh to keep the game tied before Miami pieced together a rally in the eighth.
Gurriel walked and Joey Wendle followed with a single to put runners on first and second with one out. Following a Jon Berti strikeout, Cooper hit a two-out groundball up the middle that Nationals shortstop CJ Abrams couldn’t handle. Gurriel raced around third as Abrams threw home, but catcher Keibert Ruiz couldn’t corral the ball, allowing Gurriel to score.
Tanner Scott followed with a perfect eighth inning and A.J. Puk recorded his team-leading eighth save of the season with a scoreless ninth.
Cueto’s latest rehab start
Right-handed pitcher Johnny Cueto on Friday made his second rehab start with the Double A Pensacola Blue Wahoos since rolling his ankle on May 6 in a previous rehab assignment outing.
His final line: Four earned runs allowed on seven hits with one strikeout over 3 2/3 innings. Cueto struck out one and did not issue a walk while throwing 62 pitches (42 strikes). All four runs he allowed came via a grand slam in the first inning. Cueto retired 10 of the final 13 batters he faced after giving up the grand slam.
More Injury updates
▪ Left-handed pitcher Trevor Rogers has a right lat strain and is rehabbing at the Marlins’ complex in Jupiter. He is expected to be re-evaluated over the weekend and could start throwing again on Monday if all goes well.
▪ Right-handed pitcher Matt Barnes (hip impingement) is playing catch in Jupiter.
▪ Center fielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. (turf toe) continues to rehab with the team on the road and took batting practice on the field both Wednesday in Seattle and Friday in Washington.
This story was originally published June 16, 2023 at 9:50 PM.
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