Quantrill's Marlins debut ends on a sour note as Mets take game one

MIAMI, FL - Cal Quantrill's Marlins debut was not one to remember. Quantrill, 30, signed a one-year deal this off-season worth $3.5M. He took a shorter term deal over the Colorado Rockies' multi-year offer. After getting off to a rough start this spring, his final start saw him go four perfect innings while striking out five. He then threw a five inning sim game on the eve of Opening Day.

His first ever start at loanDepot park ended on a sour note. In the top of the fifth inning, New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso took the right-hander deep on a 3-2 pitch for a grand slam to give the Mets a 6-1 lead in what would be the nail in the coffin on Monday night. The Mets wound up victorious by a score of 10-4.

In his Marlins debut, Quantrill went four innings, allowed six runs on eight hits, walked one and struck out two. He was unable to record an out in the fifth inning. Heading into the fifth, the right-hander had only allowed one run though four, but then allowed a single to Luisangel Acuña and an RBI double to Jose Siri which gave the Mets a 2-1 lead. He then hit Starling Marte with a pitch and walked Juan Soto to load the bases for Alonso. The Marlins made the questionable decision to leave their starter in there despite him getting up in pitch count.

"Cal (Quantrill) is a veteran, been in a lot of spots before and had been throwing well," said Marlins manager Clayton McCullough. "He got some traffic and we had Anthony (Veneziano) going in the event that we wanted to pull the trigger there. He had a couple opportunities to get himself out of there and kind of keep things where they were, so gave him a chance to get through that."

Quantrill was unable to and was taken out after the Alonso slam. 

Going into the at-bat, the Mets' first baseman had a career .823 OPS with 27 home runs against the Marlins. His grand slam on Monday went to the opposite field and traveled 400 feet according to statcast. 

"I got into some bad counts, which was a tough way to start the inning," said Quantrill following the game. "Just got away from me a little bit there, but threw the ball pretty well up until the fifth. Just bad counts and free base runners got me in the end."

When asked if he was surprised to be facing Juan Soto, Quantrill said, "nope, I'm a starting pitcher, I'm in there until I'm not."

The Marlins' scored first on Monday night via an impressive opposite field home run by the hot-hitting Otto Lopez. Lopez's second homer of the season ricocheted off the facing of the upper deck. He would later add an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning, continuing his impressive start to the campaign. 

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Eric Wagaman, the lone position player that the Marlins signed this offseason, hit a 424-foot homer to the Budweiser Bar, tacking on the Marlins second run of the game. This also marked Wagaman's first homer as a member of the Marlins. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Wagaman drove Griffin Conine on an opposite field RBI single to make it 10-4, which would be the final score.

"We all believe in Eric's ability to hit," said McCullough. "We felt very confident with that coming into this season and a few tough at-bats early didn't diminish our thoughts on him, but nice for him to get some rewards with some knocks"

On the bright side, right-handed reliever Luarbert Arias made his Major League debut in Monday's loss. He went three perfect innings and struck out one. Arias is the first pitcher in Marlins history to pitch at least three innings with zero baserunners allowed in his MLB debut.

"For him to go out there and make his debut and pitch as well as he did was great," said McCullough.
"It just sets us up very well for tomorrow and moving forward."

When asked about a potential roster move, McCullough said that they "are in a good spot" and that they will have "a lot of relievers available," for the rest of the series. 

With the loss, the Marlins fell to 3-2 on the year. Sandy Alcantara will make his second start of the season against Mets' Kodai Senga on Tuesday at 6:40 pm.