Jazz Chisholm Jr. embracing return to leadoff spot

[Kevin Barral]

One short-term question which needed to be answered with the departure of Luis Arraez was who would bat lead off for the Miami Marlins for the remainder of the season. For Jazz Chisholm Jr., it's a return to a familiar role.

Dating back to the final month of the 2023 season, Luis Arraez served as leadoff hitter for the Miami Marlins whenever he was in the starting lineup. That had to change in recent days after Arraez was dealt to the San Diego Padres. Marlins center fielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. is getting the first opportunity to fill the void and had another productive game on Monday against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Although the Marlins lost by a final score of 6-3, Chisholm went 2-for-4, scoring the first run of the game. The Marlins are now 10-27 on the season.

Marlins manager Skip Schumaker did an in-game interview with Bally Sports Florida and was asked about the decision to go with Chisholm as the team's new leadoff hitter.

"I was trying to figure out who to put in that spot and did my homework," said Schumaker. "I think he loves setting the tone and showing what he's capable of...As the leadoff hitter, I feel as if he's more free and able to go. He's been really good at the top of the order the last couple of games."

Entering Monday's contest, the 26-year-old had slashed .245/.299/.436/.735 with 25 home runs and 73 RBIs during his career in the leadoff spot. Schumaker noted that Chisholm had a .840 OPS in that role in 2022, when he earned an All-Star Game selection.

"When we acquired Luis Arraez—who's a pretty good leadoff hitter—we had to move him down the order," said Schumaker smiling. "He liked hitting leadoff better, but he said, 'I'll do whatever you want'...So it just shows you what kinda teammate he is."

In his first at-bat of the game, Chisholm worked a full count in a nine pitch at-bat against Walker Buehler, who was making his first start since June 10, 2022. Chisholm got to his sinker, which was way outside the zone, but got just enough for an opposite-field infield hit. He was driven in by Bryan De La Cruz to give the Marlins a 1-0 lead in the top of the first.

Chisholm worked another full count in his second at-bat against the Dodgers starting pitcher. Buehler left a cutter in the zone on his seventh pitch of the sequence, allowing Chisholm's sixth double of the season (exit velo of 98.0 mph).

This season in particular, the center fielder had struggled when hitting with a full count, slashing .059/.304/.118/.422, but had a lot more success the previous two years. Doesn't mean that Chisholm is turning the corner in higher-leverage moments, but certainly good to see him look like what we saw the last two seasons.

The Marlins' early lead did not hold up. On the bump for Miami was Roddery Muñoz who went 4 ⅔ innings, giving up six runs off of seven hits. Unlike his past two starts, Muñoz struggled to locate the strike zone at the beginning of his start, but ended the night striking out five with 12 whiffs. Also he walked four.

Muñoz broadened his pitch usage in this start, going with five pitches, using them each at least 12% of the time. His slider was the only pitch that he did not allow any hard-hit balls.

The story of the night for the Dodgers was their four home runs against Muñoz. In the bottom of the first inning, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman went back-to-back to immediately erase Miami's 2-0 lead and make it 3-2. In the bottom of the second inning, nine hitter James Outman took Muñoz deep. The final blow would come in the third inning as Teoscar Hernandez hit his ninth homer of the season.

All of the Dodgers' runs scored directly on those homers. Eli Villalobos, Declan Cronin and Anthony Maldonado combined to limit the damage from there.

With injured starters Jesús Luzardo and Braxton Garrett both looking impressive in their recent minor league rehab outings, this could prove to be Muñoz's last turn in the rotation for the near future. Either of them would be fully rested by the time this rotation spot comes up again.

The Marlins will look to tie the series up on Tuesday with Edward Cabrera taking the mound. For the Dodgers, Yoshinobu Yamamoto will start. First pitch at 10:10 p.m. ET.

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