Miami Marlins season was a miracle, but the way it ended is lesson in work still ahead | Opinion
What ended for the Miami Marlins on Thursday was an unexpected delight, an exhilarating ride. Out of nowhere, a team makes the playoffs after losing 105 games the year before? After starting this season with half the roster quarantined with COVID? No way.
The self-described “Miami Bottom-Feeders” were a feel-good surprise for the ages, fashioning one of the most remarkable, memorable seasons in South Florida sports history.
But the way that season ended this week?
Maybe that was a good thing. Needed.
Losing three National League Division Series games in a row to be swept by the Atlanta Braves — 9-5, 2-0 and then 7-0 on Thursday — was a slap of reality (as well as this franchise’s first time ousted in eight all-time playoff series).
It fairly shouted the reminder that, while this was a season of notable progress that inspires hope for Marlins fans, the ground-up rebuilding of this franchise is a work in progress, the construction not finished.
The season introduced the arrival of these Marlins as competitive.
Then the Braves reminded anybody watching of the difference between competing and contending.
Miami didn’t get swept because Sandy Alcantara hit Ronald Acuna Jr. with a pitch in Game 1 to rile up the Braves.
Miami got swept because Atlanta is clearly better, mostly at bat but pretty much everywhere.
No excuses, Miami had the three starting pitchers it wanted in the NLDS, with Alcantara, Pablo Lopez and then Sixto Sanchez. It wasn’t enough. Not nearly.
The Braves’ power-laden lineup was too much. (And underlining Miami’s work left to do, of course, is that Atlanta happens to be an NL East divisionmate, meaning this nemesis will be a roadblock until the Fish find a way around that).
Thursday, Sanchez was not sharp and lasted only three innings, tied for his shortest outing of this late-starting, coronavirus-shortened MLB season. He gave up four hits, four runs and walked three.
A four-run third inning powered by Marcell Ozuna’s RBI single and Travis d’Arnaud’s two-run double chased Sanchez and was the only support Braves starter Kyle Wright would require.
What really stood out, though, was Miami’s modest lineup in terms of offense, especially relative to the Braves’ mighty batting order.
I love that the Fish are stockpiling strong young arms as a blueprint, but more and bigger bats will be needed moving forward. It should be an offseason emphasis, a priority in free agency. It will take spending, an increased payroll, to help make that leap from competitive to contending.
Thursday’s second straight shutout loss saw Marlins batters 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position, leaving seven men on base. That included leaving the bases loaded in the third inning when second baseman Jazz Chisholm grounded out. (I hesitate second-guessing a manager’s decision, but, given the 4-0 hole in a literal must-win game, I wonder if Don Mattingly — who should win manager of the year — might have pinch-hit for Chisholm, a rookie making his first postseason appearance, one who’d hit .161 in limited action during the season).
So much about this season felt like a watershed for this Marlins club.
The first playoff berth in 17 years.
The first winning season record since 2009.
Let’s be real, too though.
The final won-lost record, including postseason, was 33-32. That’s a pretty good team, not a great one. And there is little question the much-shortened season and expanded playoffs aided in the Marlins getting this far.
Having said that, going from a 105-loss season in 2019 to the second round of the playoffs in 2020 is its own miracle, no equivocation or asterisk required.
This was the third year of the Derek Jeter era, the major rebuild. It is ahead of schedule. Jeter wanted to install a change in culture. This season makes that seem palpable.
If you doubted Jeter’s plan — to trade away star players for prospects — you should doubt it less now.
Miami Marlins fans have something now they have not had in a long, long time.
A trust in the direction, a belief in the future.
It is a strange, unfamiliar thing. There is a word for it.
Optimism.
This story was originally published October 8, 2020 at 5:40 PM.
