Hernández spoils Weathers' strong start as Dodgers sweep Marlins

The Miami Marlins' first California road trip of the 2024 season has been, to say the least, a wild one. From trading their best hitter moments before game one of their series in Oakland, to allowing 20 runs for the seventh time in their franchise's 31-year history, and finishing their visit west by having to face the new "Murderers Row," Miami went into Wednesday's game with hopes of making the five-hour flight home a little more bearable by salvaging game three of the series. That is easier said than done, though, as standing in their way was the aforementioned generational Los Angeles Dodgers lineup and former top prospect, Gavin Stone, on the bump. Ryan Weathers, coming off two starts where he allowed a combined nine earned runs, got the ball for Miami.

Similarly to games one and two of the series, the Dodgers got on the board in the series finale early. In the bottom of the first, Weathers made quick work of two future Hall of Famers in Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani. Unfortunately for Weathers, though, a third future member of the Hall, Freddie Freeman, got on base with a broken-bat single. Freeman made his way around the bases thanks to a balk from Weathers, a passed ball by Nick Fortes, and finally scored on a Teoscar Hernández single.

The Dodgers are accustomed to putting up crooked numbers and running away from their opponents early, but Weathers had other plans. He followed up his first inning of work with arguably his most encouraging performance in his biggest test of the season, shutting down the most dominant lineup in the league in their own confines. From innings two to five, the lefty allowed just one hit and one walk while mixing his pitches effectively, keeping Dodger hitters off balance and not allowing them to elevate the baseball, evident in the five groundouts he collected in that four-inning timeframe. Throughout his entire start, Weathers threw his fastball 43% of the time, and mixed in his secondary pitches extremely effectively, using his sweeper, changeup and sinker 20%, 19% and 18% of the time, respectively.

While Weathers was silencing Dodger bats, Bryan De La Cruz picked him up with his second homer in as many days, tying the game at one apiece in the top of the fourth. De La Cruz's eighth blast of the year got out in a hurry, registering at 110.5 mph off the bat.

Trouble arose for Weathers again in the sixth, though, as Freddie Freeman got things started for Los Angeles with a double. Mel Stottlemyre Jr. visited Weathers to calm him down before he faced Hernández, the only other Dodger hitter that could figure him out. After battling Weathers into a full count, Hernández got what he was looking for and roped a hanging changeup over the wall in left-center field to give the Dodgers a 3-1 lead.

On the Bally Sports Florida broadcast, they featured a Statcast graphic showing that the strong wind pushed Hernández's HR a staggering eight feet, just barely enough for the ball to make it to the seats.

After finishing the sixth inning, Weathers' day was done. If you are a Marlins fan, you have to be very impressed by his outing.

Hernández's home run would be the difference on Wednesday. Although Miami's bullpen featured scoreless appearances from both Anthony Maldonado and Andrew Nardi, their bats could not get anything going against an equally impressive Los Angeles bullpen. The Fish went hitless in the top of the eighth and ninth, securing a 3-1 victory and a series sweep for the Dodgers, who are now on a seven-game winning streak.

The Marlins return to loanDepot park on Friday night at 7:10 as they take on their division rival, the Philadelphia Phillies, for the first time in 2024. Trevor Rogers is set to make his eighth start of the season for Miami while Taijuan Walker takes the ball for Rob Thomson's Phillies.