Team effort helps Miami escape San Diego with a victory

[Louis Addeo-Weiss]

Braxton Garrett put forth another solid effort, but the bats do the heavy lifting in Miami's 20th victory of the season.

Looking to avoid being swept since dropping all three of their contests against the Dodgers from May 6-8, the Marlins entered Wednesday's series finale versus the Padres with a deck largely in their favor.

Opposing starter Yu Darvish entered the afternoon the owner of a 5.59 ERA over seven starts against Miami. Meanwhile, Braxton Garrett entered on the heels of his first career shutout against Arizona on May 24. It only felt like a matter of time, too, for the Marlins bats to break out of a slump that had seen them score just nine runs over their previous five games. 

To the delight of Marlins fans, each of these narratives were ever-present at Petco Park Wednesday afternoon.

Darvish lasted just three innings in what would prove to be a tie with his April 8 outing against the Chicago Cubs for his shortest start of the season. Darvish allowed three runs (two earned) and six hits in his latest effort. Capitalizing on Darvish's tendency to be slow to the plate, Miami stole a pair of bases off the 13-year veteran. Since the start of 2020, Darvish's 58 stolen bases allowed are the fifth most in the Majors.  

As for Garrett, though he failed to replicate the ruthless efficiency at which he attacked the Diamondbacks' hitters in his previous start, the finesse-throwing left-hander still stymied the Padres to the tune of five innings of one-run, six-hit ball in the Marlins 9-1 victory to avoid the sweep. Miami concludes their six-game West Coast road trip 3-3. 

"Probably not as sharp as he wanted to be, but every time he pitches, we have a really good chance to win," noted Skip Schumaker. Miami improves to 4-0 in games started by Garrett this season, and 25-9 since the start of 2023. 

"Not sharp, but we battled hard, and Nick made some great calls to get me through it," said Garrett postgame.

In the victory, Miami's 20th of the season, the club accumulated a season-best 16 hits, including multi-hit games from seven of the nine starters. The win also marked the first time since August 8-14, 2023 that Garrett had won consecutive outings. 

After going scoreless in the 1st, Miami plated a pair, the first of which coming on an RBI double courtesy of Nick Fortes. Jazz Chisholm Jr. would follow with the first of two run-scoring hits from him on the day. The Marlins centerfielder would lace his third triple of the season in the 7th to score Otto Lopez. Since the start of play on May 5, Chisholm has hit .311/.361/.556/.916.

San Diego's most valiant threat of the day came when Garrett surrendered a Ha-Seong Kim leadoff home run in the 3rd to cut the deficit to two. Garrett would, however, pitch around this and the two ensuing singles surrendered, getting some help from Josh Bell via a diving play to save a potential pair of runs in the process. 

Right fielder Jesús Sánchez pitched into the run-scoring barrage in the 6th when he hit his third home run of the season, and first since April 24. 

 

Of Note

- Through eight career starts against Miami, Yu Darvish's 5.83 ERA is the second-highest against any MLB opponent he's faced, trailing only the San Francisco Giants (5.89). 

- Wednesday marked Nick Gordon's first career multi-hit, multi-stolen base game of his career. 

- Miami's Wednesday win also saw Josh Bell collect his 52nd career 3-hit game. It also marked the second time in his career that Bell had 3 hits in consecutive games, last doing so 7/15-7/16/22. 

 

Looking Ahead

With no game slated for Thursday, Miami will fly home to commence an eight-game homestand starting with a three-game set against the defending World Champion Texas Rangers on Friday. 

Sixto Sánchez (0-3, 6.25 ERA) will make his first career appearance against Texas in the series opener when he squares off against former Marlin José Ureña (1-4, 3.53 ERA). In parts of 6 seasons with Miami, Ureña posted a 32-46 win-loss record and 4.60 ERA in 597 innings pitched.

First pitch from loanDepot park is slated for 7:10 EST.

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[MarlinzDude86]

I feel like avoiding potential sweeps is great for morale. Especially when it's a dominating finale beforing coming back for a home stand. Winning a series is ideal, of course, but  salvaging a rough series has its merits too.

[THOMAS JOSEPH]

I like the contributions from up and down the lineup, aggressiveness on the bases, and improving start lengths by the Marlins starting pitchers.