After exiting April 16-13, the Marlins nosedived in the first week of May, losing each of their first 5 games, being outscored 34-12 in the process. But the Fish would rebound to win 13 of their last 22 May contests, exiting the month 29-27 and tied with the Mets for 2nd place in the NL East. How did we get here? As the title suggests, here's what went well for Miami this past month. Beauty Behind the Madness A quick glance at Braxton Garrett's pitching line for May—5.46 ERA (19 ER in 31.1 IP), 4.91 FIP, and a .813 opponent OPS—would suggest he was just plain bad. However, a vast majority of that damage can be attributed to his start against Atlanta on May 3. In what would be generous to simply refer to as a "disastrous" outing, Garrett set career worsts in hits (14), runs (11), and home runs allowed (4), seeing his season ERA balloon from 2.45 to 5.81. That minus-8 game score of his currently sits 2nd-worst among all MLB starts this season behind only Luis Cessa's 11-run blow-up against Philadelphia on 4/16. In a game where success is largely predicated on dealing with adversity, Garrett rebounded in a big way, pitching to a 2.67 ERA (3.25 FIP) over his final five outings of the month, bringing his season ERA back down to a more respectable 4.22. The former first-round pick added a cutter to his repertoire in his first post-Atlanta-debacle outing in Arizona. He paired that with a much-improved changeup in his May 30 start against San Diego, where he allowed just 2 hits over 5 1/3 innings.
The next objective for Garrett: solving his 6th-inning/third-time-through-the-order woes to cement his status as a legitimate mid-rotation MLB starter. Soler Power While the antecedents of a Jorge Soler bounce-back came in the form of an encouraging April (5 HR, .772 OPS), his production increased exponentially the following month, hitting .271/.355/626/.982, clubbing 12 home runs and amassing 67 total bases in the process. At one point, Soler homered in 6 consecutive starts in the outfield.
Soler's 12 big flies made him the first Marlin since Giancarlo Stanton in August 2017 to hit at least 10 home runs in a single calendar month. It wasn't just the sheer prolificacy of Soler's home runs, but when most of them happened. He enters June hitting .378/.452/.838 in late & close situations, per Baseball-Reference. His 1.245 OPS in high-leverage situations was more than .400 points higher than what it was in low-leverage events (.833). This may best be illuminated by the walk-off blast he hit off against Washington on May 16.
The Life of Bryan For the Monty Python fans that picked up on the reference, consider yourselves people of culture. For those here surmising that this was made in jest to Bryan De La Cruz, you too deserve a tip of the cap. De La Cruz, like Soler, is a streaky player. Case in point, after OPS'ing .862 through his first 19 games of the April, the Marlins left fielder endured a 15-game stretch from April 23-May 10 where he hit .167/.182/.167, seeing his OPS dip to .636. Miami would go 6-9 over that span.
Just when the 26-year-old appeared to be a candidate for a possible demotion to AAA, the better side of his streakiness reared its head. De La Cruz slashed .368/.449/.662/1.111, hitting 5 home runs and totaling 25 hits in 18 games from May 12-31. Among hitters with at least 75 plate appearances in that span, his 202 wRC+ was tied with Texas' Josh Jung for fourth in all of baseball, per FanGraphs.
Maybe most encouraging aspect of De La Cruz's hot stretch came in the form of increased plate discipline—he drew 10 walks in 78 plate appearances (12.8 BB%), more than double the 6.1% mark he posted in the 207 career games prior. If this is a sign of things to come, De La Cruz could find himself flirting with a potential All-Star bid come the break. As DLC went, so did Miami. The team had a 10-8 record in that stretch to close out the month after starting May at 0-5. A Noble Scott-sman
Tanner Scott pitched to 14 innings of a 1.93 ERA and even better 1.43 FIP during the season's second month. Facing 56 hitters, the hard-throwing left-hander struck out 25 of them (44.6 K%). Among the 153 relievers to throw at least 10 innings in May, only Scott's teammate, fellow lefty Steven Okert (44.7) and Baltimore's Félix Bautista (53.7) struck out a higher percentage of hitters. By fWAR, Scott (0.6) was in a four-way tie for second-most valuable reliever in the Majors, trailing yet another Baltimore reliever, Yennier Cano (0.8).
Now, after 26 innings of a 3.46 ERA, 3.17 FIP, and 12.8 K/9, Scott is looking more like the reliever that Miami envisioned when Kim Ng acquired him ahead of the 2022 season. Even "Better" Steven(s)
When he joined the Marlins on a minor league deal before 2021, Steven Okert had shown himself to be merely an average-or-so MLB reliever, posting an adjusted 98 ERA+ in 48 1/3 career innings with San Francisco. The way that Okert has taken his career to new heights in parts of three seasons with Miami has been nothing short of awe-inspiring. Among the relievers to throw at least 100 innings since 2021, only four—David Robertson, Edwin Díaz, Devin Williams and Okert—have posted an ERA+ above 150 while simultaneously posting a <6 H/9 and >11 K/9. Like his aforementioned counterpart Scott, hitters stood next to no chance against Okert, hitting just .095 and striking out 44.7% of the time in 13 innings. The left-hander struck out at least 1 hitter in 8 consecutive appearances to conclude the month, a streak active at the time of this writing. During the absence of A.J. Puk, Okert has again been a legitimate difference-maker in Miami's bullpen.
After exiting April 16-13, the Marlins nosedived in the first week of May, losing each of their first 5 games, being outscored 34-12 in the process. But the Fish would rebound to win 13 of their last 22 May contests, exiting the month 29-27 and tied with the Mets for 2nd place in the NL East. How did we get here? As the title suggests, here's what went well for Miami this past month. Beauty Behind the Madness A quick glance at Braxton Garrett's pitching line for May—5.46 ERA (19 ER in 31.1 IP), 4.91 FIP, and a .813 opponent OPS—would suggest he was just plain bad. However, a vast majority of that damage can be attributed to his start against Atlanta on May 3. In what would be generous to simply refer to as a "disastrous" outing, Garrett set career worsts in hits (14), runs (11), and home runs allowed (4), seeing his season ERA balloon from 2.45 to 5.81. That minus-8 game score of his currently sits 2nd-worst among all MLB starts this season behind only Luis Cessa's 11-run blow-up against Philadelphia on 4/16. In a game where success is largely predicated on dealing with adversity, Garrett rebounded in a big way, pitching to a 2.67 ERA (3.25 FIP) over his final five outings of the month, bringing his season ERA back down to a more respectable 4.22. The former first-round pick added a cutter to his repertoire in his first post-Atlanta-debacle outing in Arizona. He paired that with a much-improved changeup in his May 30 start against San Diego, where he allowed just 2 hits over 5 1/3 innings. The next objective for Garrett: solving his 6th-inning/third-time-through-the-order woes to cement his status as a legitimate mid-rotation MLB starter. Soler Power While the antecedents of a Jorge Soler bounce-back came in the form of an encouraging April (5 HR, .772 OPS), his production increased exponentially the following month, hitting .271/.355/626/.982, clubbing 12 home runs and amassing 67 total bases in the process. At one point, Soler homered in 6 consecutive starts in the outfield. Soler's 12 big flies made him the first Marlin since Giancarlo Stanton in August 2017 to hit at least 10 home runs in a single calendar month. It wasn't just the sheer prolificacy of Soler's home runs, but when most of them happened. He enters June hitting .378/.452/.838 in late & close situations, per Baseball-Reference. His 1.245 OPS in high-leverage situations was more than .400 points higher than what it was in low-leverage events (.833). This may best be illuminated by the walk-off blast he hit off against Washington on May 16. The Life of Bryan For the Monty Python fans that picked up on the reference, consider yourselves people of culture. For those here surmising that this was made in jest to Bryan De La Cruz, you too deserve a tip of the cap. De La Cruz, like Soler, is a streaky player. Case in point, after OPS'ing .862 through his first 19 games of the April, the Marlins left fielder endured a 15-game stretch from April 23-May 10 where he hit .167/.182/.167, seeing his OPS dip to .636. Miami would go 6-9 over that span. Just when the 26-year-old appeared to be a candidate for a possible demotion to AAA, the better side of his streakiness reared its head. De La Cruz slashed .368/.449/.662/1.111, hitting 5 home runs and totaling 25 hits in 18 games from May 12-31. Among hitters with at least 75 plate appearances in that span, his 202 wRC+ was tied with Texas' Josh Jung for fourth in all of baseball, per FanGraphs. Maybe most encouraging aspect of De La Cruz's hot stretch came in the form of increased plate discipline—he drew 10 walks in 78 plate appearances (12.8 BB%), more than double the 6.1% mark he posted in the 207 career games prior. If this is a sign of things to come, De La Cruz could find himself flirting with a potential All-Star bid come the break. As DLC went, so did Miami. The team had a 10-8 record in that stretch to close out the month after starting May at 0-5. A Noble Scott-sman Tanner Scott pitched to 14 innings of a 1.93 ERA and even better 1.43 FIP during the season's second month. Facing 56 hitters, the hard-throwing left-hander struck out 25 of them (44.6 K%). Among the 153 relievers to throw at least 10 innings in May, only Scott's teammate, fellow lefty Steven Okert (44.7) and Baltimore's Félix Bautista (53.7) struck out a higher percentage of hitters. By fWAR, Scott (0.6) was in a four-way tie for second-most valuable reliever in the Majors, trailing yet another Baltimore reliever, Yennier Cano (0.8). Now, after 26 innings of a 3.46 ERA, 3.17 FIP, and 12.8 K/9, Scott is looking more like the reliever that Miami envisioned when Kim Ng acquired him ahead of the 2022 season. Even "Better" Steven(s) When he joined the Marlins on a minor league deal before 2021, Steven Okert had shown himself to be merely an average-or-so MLB reliever, posting an adjusted 98 ERA+ in 48 1/3 career innings with San Francisco. The way that Okert has taken his career to new heights in parts of three seasons with Miami has been nothing short of awe-inspiring. Among the relievers to throw at least 100 innings since 2021, only four—David Robertson, Edwin Díaz, Devin Williams and Okert—have posted an ERA+ above 150 while simultaneously posting a <6 H/9 and >11 K/9. Like his aforementioned counterpart Scott, hitters stood next to no chance against Okert, hitting just .095 and striking out 44.7% of the time in 13 innings. The left-hander struck out at least 1 hitter in 8 consecutive appearances to conclude the month, a streak active at the time of this writing. During the absence of A.J. Puk, Okert has again been a legitimate difference-maker in Miami's bullpen.
Effectively wild Pérez, bullpen, and Fortes do just enough to secure series sweep in Anaheim. As the Miami Marlins entered Sunday's conclusion of their 10-game west coast road trip, they came into the day seeking their first ever series sweep of the junior Los Angeles franchise, the Angels. Working around 4 walks, Eury Pérez, making just his 4th big league start, would set the tone for Miami, authoring 5 scoreless innings that included strikeouts of both Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. Miami's bullpen would follow suit, authoring 4 scoreless of their own to secure a 2-0 win, concluding the road trip at 5-5. "I grew up watching these amazing talents, Trout and Ohtani...but I just had to go out, compete, and enjoy the moment," said Pérez. "He had one big inning. I would've loved to see him go 6, but he did enough today," said manager Skip Schumaker. Miami pitching neutralized Trout and Ohtani to the tune of 5-for-24 with 7 strikeouts in the 3-game sweep. Beyond catching what was the team's third shutout of the season, Nick Fortes opened the scoring in the top of 3rd when he hit his third home run of the season off human homer repellant, Patrick Sandoval. In 55 1/3 innings this season, Sandoval has allowed all of 4 long balls (0.65 HR/9). The Los Angeles left-hander held his own Sunday, limiting Miami to 2 runs, scattering 8 hits and 2 walks. "3-2, he (Sandoval) just hung a changeup, and I took advantage of it," noted Fortes to Bally's Jessica Blaylock. Encouraging signs for the ever-wandering Jean Segura came in the form of an RBI single to plate Miami's second run in the 6th. "He's fighting...the care factor shows because he really cares," said Schumaker. The Halos would threaten in the 9th, though. With JT Chargois looking for his first career save, a Chad Wallach single to begin the inning would be erased on a double play off the bat of Taylor Ward. However, rookie shortstop Zach Neto would work a 3-2 walk to bring up Trout doppelgänger, Hunter Renfroe. Renfroe would proceed to double to the left-center gap, setting up second and third for the aforementioned Trout. Working the count 2-2, Chargois would deliver a perfectly placed 96 mph sinker, running in on the hands of a swinging Trout, who hit it all of 58.5 mph to Luis Arraez for the game's final out. Of Note At just 20 years and 43 days, Eury Peréz becomes the youngest pitcher in Marlins franchise history to throw at least 5 scoreless innings in a single outing. José Fernández had previously been the record-holder when authoring 6 scoreless frames against the Phillies on 4/13/13 at 20 years, 256 days. Though going homerless to snap a stretch of 5 consecutive games with a long ball, Jorge Soler exited play Sunday 67 total bases in the month of May. The franchise record for said month is 83, set by Giancarlo Stanton back in 2017.Fortes became just the 8th catcher in franchise history to collect at least 6 total bases while catching a shutout in the same game. Looking Ahead The Marlins will partake in the Memorial Day festivities as they'll have their first off day since May 15. At 28-26 and holding a 1-game lead for 2nd place in the NL East, the team will resume play Tuesday when they return home to begin a three-game series against the San Diego Padres. Sandy Alcantara (2-5, 4.86 ERA) will make his 11th start of the season while the Friars will fare with Ryan Weathers (1-3, 3.94 ERA). First pitch is slated for 6:40 EST from loanDepot Park. Miami Marlins (2) @ Los Angeles Angels (0), Win Probability Graph, 28 May 2023 | Baseball-Savant
