Rookies fuel offense as Marlins clinch series in Denver

DENVER—An incredible rookie class has propelled the Marlins to a much-improved record in 2025. Headlined by Agustín Ramírez and Jakob Marsee, Miami currently features eight rookie position players on its active roster. In Wednesday night’s 8-4 win over the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field, seven rookies were in the starting lineup—and they accounted for seven of the team’s runs in the series-clinching victory.

“The maturity in their at-bats and their understanding of situations and approaches has really improved throughout the course of this season,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said postgame. “The understanding that to perform at a high level here, it’s not just ‘see ball, hit ball.’ You need to have a plan, be stubborn, and stay disciplined—and they’ve done that.”

The top three hitters in McCullough’s lineup—Marsee, Ramírez, and Liam Hicks—combined to go 3-for-10 with five RBI and four walks. Ramírez capped his night with a 422-foot moonshot in the eighth inning, his 21st home run of the season.

“This is a hard game, and you have Gus hitting 21 homers and stealing 10 bags as a rookie—it’s really good, it’s exciting,” starter Ryan Weathers said postgame.

Rookies Troy Johnston, Heriberto Hernández and Javier Sanoja also all contributed by combining to drive in two runs and score four times. 

"One of the best at-bats of the night was Troy's," McCullough said. "Leading off the third after Ryan (Weathers) had a long inning, he went out there and worked a terrific at bat and those are really positive things for our group, that there's 'team at-bats' that are required throughout games and our guys are learning how to appreciate that

Weathers, making just his seventh start of the season and his second since returning from the 60-day IL on September 12 after a lat strain, struggled to put hitters away on Wednesday. McCullough told reporters pregame that the left-hander would be limited to six “ups” or 85 pitches.

After a clean, 18-pitch first inning, Weathers labored through a 31-pitch second in which he surrendered a pair of runs.

“They put up some really good ABs, weren’t really chasing the changeup tonight, so they forced me to go in a different direction,” Weathers said. He allowed another run in a grinding fourth inning, finishing with 80 pitches over four frames. His final line: three runs allowed on two walks and two strikeouts.

“It was a grind tonight. He had to work hard to get through it, but he buckled down,” McCullough said. “He got through four without his best stuff, kept it to three runs, and that’s a positive takeaway.”

Weathers utilized all five pitches in his arsenal, topping out at 98 mph with his fastball. His changeup was his second-most used pitch, averaging 88.5 mph—up from his season norm.

Once Weathers’ night was done, Miami’s bullpen carried the load. Lake Bachar, Ronny Henriquez, Calvin Faucher, and George Soriano combined for five strong innings to close it out.

“They were fantastic,” McCullough said of his relievers. “Coming in right behind Weathers, you’re just trying to put up as many zeroes as you can—or at least avoid a crooked number. All those guys passed it off to one another and did a fantastic job giving our offense a chance to tack on more runs.”

With their eight runs on Tuesday, the Marlins have now scored 668 this season, surpassing their 2023 total of 666. It marks their highest single-season run output since 2017, when they scored 778.

With the win, Miami improved to 72-80 while Colorado dropped its league-worst 111th game of the year. The Marlins also clinched a finish ahead of the Nationals in the NL East, thanks to Washington’s loss.

Sandy Alcantara will look to complete the sweep on Thursday afternoon at Coors Field.