Isaac Azout

Los Angeles—All seemed well in Miami's world on Saturday afternoon. Their young phenom gave them 6 shutout innings and their 3-headed monster of Andrew Nardi, Tanner Scott, and David Robertson was ready to go. Unfortunately for Miami, disaster struck in the bottom of the 8th and the Dodgers stole Game 1 of Saturday's day/night doubleheader in Los Angeles. Eury Day in LAThe last time Eury Pérez toed the rubber at Dodger Stadium, it was as a representative of the National League in the 2022 MLB Futures Game. At the time, Pérez was ranked as the #1 prospect in the Marlins system and the #16 prospect in all of Major League Baseball. https://videos.files.wordpress.com/whRrl9SA/387901f8-6178-4a89-bb35-93edd1b5fc8e.mp4"I felt really comfortable because I already knew the stadium and it was nice to remember that special moment" said Pérez in Spanish. He's since graduated from prospect eligibility and blossomed into one of baseball's most exciting rookies. Heading into his start on Saturday against the Dodgers, Pérez had made 13 starts in his rookie campaign, going 5-4 with a 3.19 ERA and 10.6 K/9. He had struggled in his two starts since being recalled on August 7, allowing 8 ER in 8.2 IP. Those struggles ended abruptly as he tossed arguably the best start 0f his career in Game 1 of Saturday's doubleheader. The 20-year-old went six shutout innings, allowed two hits, no runs, no walks, and struck out a career-high ten batters. He threw 90 pitches, 60 of them for strikes. "Against an offense like this, yeah, best I've seen his stuff" said manager Skip Schumaker postgame. He threw his changeup only seven times and relied heavily on his fastball and slider which generated 15 of his 22 whiffs. His fastball ranged from 96.7-99.7 mph. Overall, the velocity on that pitch was up for Pérez in this one, averaging 98.2 mph. "It's something that we're working on, with that pitch specifically. When it's not working as well, we throw it less. Luckily the fastball and slider were." Bottom of the 8thMiami had been clinging to a 1-0 lead since the top of the fourth inning when Bryan De La Cruz drilled an RBI double to score Jake Burger. That was the lone run of the game for Miami. After Nardi pitched a perfect seventh, usual closer David Robertson got the 8th. "We planned before the game that he was going to get that part of the order and we're going to have (Tanner) Scott get the top of the lineup. It didn't matter if it was the eighth or ninth." A one-out walk to James Outman began the downturn for Robertson, and Enrique Hernández followed with a sharp single up the middle. With runners on the corners and one out, Austin Barnes was called to put down a safety squeeze, which was executed perfectly and scored Outman. First baseman Josh Bell threw it to the backstop which allowed Hernández and Barnes to move up. "It's tough to defend that safety squeeze with a guy on first base. Barnes put down a perfect bunt, executed perfectly. Guy with speed on third base made it even tougher to defend" said Skip. MVP candidate Mookie Betts put the nail in the coffin with a two-run single to give the Dodgers a 3-1 lead and handed Robertson his second loss as a Marlin. "Things went wrong when you got a runner on first and then they just kept coming around and everybody kept scoring" said Robertson postgame to reporters. "I'm throwing the ball as well as I can throw it. That's me. Nothing I can do about it, you get beat sometimes. Those guys get paid a lot of money to hit the ball and have good at-bats." Robertson has been inconsistent since coming over to Miami in a three-player trade with the New York Mets, as he's allowed seven ER in eight innings pitched as a Marlin. Miami fell to 64-60 while the Dodgers improved to 75-47. Pérez got the no-decision and Ryan Yarbrough earned the win for Los Angeles. Evan Phillips set the Marlins down in order in the 9th to earn his 19th save. Miami will continue the 63rd doubleheader in franchise history at 9:10 pm ET on Saturday, going up against Julio Urías. Braxton Garrett will get the ball in the rubber game for Miami. Photo by Harry How/Getty Images

Los Angeles - The key ingredient missing to Sandy's success at Dodger Stadium? Run support. Miami backed their ace on Friday night with an 11-run outburst that helped him earn his sixth win of the season and 40th of his career. LA Sandy Every player has their own personal house of horror. For Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara, that place had been Dodger Stadium. In three career starts at Chavez Ravine, Alcantara was 0-2 with an 18.00 ERA going into Friday night. In his 10 innings pitched there, he had allowed 24 hits, 6 walks, and 4 (!) home runs. The only stadiums in which he's allowed more than 4 home runs are Truist Park, Citi Field, Coors Field, and of course, loanDepot Park. "It's different lineups hopefully that he's probably facing. I know ballparks are different. You like hitting in different ballparks. I think there are places that you don't want to play in for whatever reason but I think that you know as you go on in your career, sometimes you get over those 'jitters' and move past that. Sandy's in a different spot than maybe he was when he faced them" said manager Skip Schumaker pregame on his starting pitcher. It seems he did indeed move on from those jitters, as he gave the team easily his best performance at Dodger Stadium. His final line: 6.0 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 SO. All three runs were scored on solo shots (Betts, Muncy, and Outman). "We can deal with solo home runs. When it's guys on base, then we have some issues. He just missed location; I think he tried to go up a couple of times and just missed middle-middle. Like we said pregame, if you miss your spots against a really good team like this, they're going to do damage, even when your guy is throwing 100 mph." Skip also mentioned he thought his two-seam was moving more than he wanted at times and that's where the missed location came from, but the slider was really good and helped bail him out on Friday. Leadoff homers! Both teams wasted no time getting on the board in this one. In the top of the first, Jorge Soler slammed the 2nd pitch of the game into the right field seats for his 31st long ball of the season. On Sandy's fourth pitch of the night, however, Mookie Betts returned the favor with a 420-foot homer to dead center. It was Mookie's 11th leadoff home run of the season, which extends his Dodger single season record. The homer also tied Mookie with Curtis Granderson for the 6th most leadoff home runs in MLB history. Power-hitting ball club The Marlins went 11 years without hitting 5+ home runs in a single game. That drought ended on Friday night as the team erupted for 5 round trippers through the first four innings, highlighted by a 3-homer third inning. After Soler hit his second homer of the game to lead off the frame, Jake Burger pummeled a 3-run shot to dead centerfield. It was his 27th of the season, 2nd as a Marlin, and second against Dodger starter Tony Gonsolin. A few batters later, unlikely power threat Jacob Stallings joined in on the fun and blasted his second homer of the year. The ball traveled 415 feet to center field, the second longest home run of his career. Stallings mentioned postgame that this one felt like the longest one he's ever hit In the top of the fifth, with a couple of runners on, Jazz Chisholm Jr. lifted his 12th home run of the season which extended Miami's lead to 10-1. When asked about his offense, Sandy said "It's exciting" with what they provided on Friday. "They've (Burger and Bell) been hitting bombs since they got here so we feel really happy about it." Steven Okert, Jorge López, and David Robertson pitched the last three innings of Friday night's 11-3 win. The team snapped the Dodgers' 11-game win streak and handed them their second loss of the month of August. Miami improved to 64-59, staying tied with Cincinnati for the third Wild Card spot. News and notes: The Marlins 5 home runs marked the club's first 5-homer game since July 3, 2012 at Milwaukee and just the 8th in franchise history Jorge Soler is the 7th Marlins player to hit two home runs in a single game at Dodger Stadium, last done by JT Realmuto in 2018. Former Marlin Miguel Rojas started the game at shortstop, but pitched a perfect 9th inning, retiring Jazz Chisholm, Jake Burger, and Bryan De La Cruz in order. Sandy's thoughts: "He always tries to pitch, we saw it here in Miami a couple of ties. I think he enjoyed it. He got Jazz Chisholm out and a couple of guys."Miami has a double-header on Saturday beginning at 3:00 pm ET. Eury Pérez will pitch Game 1 while Braxton Garrett gets the ball for Game 2. Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images

Isaac Azout and Kevin Barral are joined by Joe Frisaro to react to this week's Marlins trades and discuss the key decisions that still lie ahead between now and Tuesday's deadline. Also, Joe reflects on the career of Miguel Cabrera as he makes his final trip to Miami as an active player. Enjoy episode #46! Subscribe to the Fish On First YouTube channel to watch video versions of every Fish Unfiltered episode. On Wednesday, the Marlins traded Dylan Floro to the Minnesota Twins for Jorge López. Then late Thursday night, they made an even bigger splash by sending prospects Marco Vargas (No. 15 on the FOF Top 30) and Ronald Hernandez (No. 18) to the New York Mets for David Robertson. With four more days remaining until the MLB trade deadline, Frisaro says to "keep an eye" on Washington Nationals third baseman Jeimer Candelario as a serious possibility for the Fish. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic has also reported that Miami is interested in him. A 2003 World Series champion and four-time All-Star during his Marlins tenure, Miguel Cabrera is visiting LoanDepot Park this weekend as a member of the Detroit Tigers. He'll be honored with a pregame ceremony prior to Friday's series opener. Follow Joe (@JoeFrisaro), Kevin (@kevin_barral), Isaac (@IsaacAzout) and Fish On First (@FishOnFirst) on Twitter. Complete Miami Marlins coverage here at FishOnFirst.com. Our Fish On First podcast programming includes The Offishial Show, Fish Unfiltered, State of the Fish, Swimming Upstream, Fishology and What a Relief. All new episodes are posted to FishOnFirst.com/podcasts. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Podbean, Megaphone or wherever you normally get your pods from.

Former Marlins ace speaks on Toronto trade, Eury Pérez, and much more.From 2009-2011, Josh Johnson was one of, if not the best pitcher in baseball. A decade removed from his final MLB appearance, the two-time All-Star returned to loanDepot Park for the latest Flashback Friday Marlins alumni celebration. Johnson, Justin Bour, and Gaby Sanchez threw out the ceremonial first pitches before Miami’s devastating 4-3 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies. After the media scrum, Josh sat down with me for a few minutes and allowed me to discuss a myriad of topics. Here’s that conversation. Fish On First: I’m here with former Marlins ace Josh Johnson. Thanks so much for taking the time. First off, how’s retirement been? What have you been up to? Josh Johnson: It’s been great. Coaching, coaching, and more coaching. Working with different age levels of kids, was doing lessons for a while, but now I’m actually coaching teams, and I’m teaching them the right ways to play baseball. FOF: We spoke briefly before the interview about some of the rule changes. You’re a big fan of the pitch clock? JJ: I would have loved it, that’s all I know. As soon as I heard it, I figured the hitters would have the toughest time with it, not all hitters. There were only a few pitchers that I remember who really took their time. As far as hitters, they like to fix the batting gloves, all that kind of stuff, and now they have to get ready right away, but I think the league has adjusted well. FOF: You actually threw the first pitch ever in this stadium as you were part of the team that broke in Marlins Park. What was your favorite memory from that tumultuous 2012 season? JJ: Ooh. I like just how I battled, honestly. That was a rough year with different things. The way my body felt wasn’t great basically all year. And then I get to the end of the year with 191 innings, I had a chance to get 200. The hamstring is tight, the shoulder is tight, seemed like everything wasn’t in the cards to throw 200 innings, you know. The way I actually battled through that season was actually one of my proudest moments as a big leaguer. FOF: Like most very tall pitchers, you struggled with command early on in your career. What’s it like to see someone like Eury Perez come up and attack the strike zone like he has at 6’8" and 20 years old? JJ: It’s, honestly it’s a little mind-blowing really to watch him. I started watching him the last couple weeks, just to get a feel for who’s pitching, just to see what I’ve been hearing about and the things that have been said about him, and he’s the real deal. Whenever you can control the ball like that and have four pitches and be as good as he has been, he’ll be in this game for a long time. FOF: Your reaction to that infamous Toronto trade in November of 2012? JJ: Honestly, we were all a little bummed. We thought we were gonna get one more season. We thought we were really close to being a playoff contender in '13. Everyone in that clubhouse thought it. Once José Reyes got comfortable playing out of New York, we were all really excited. I actually talked to Mike Redmond maybe a day or two before the trade, and we spoke about how big that season was going to be. Spoke to Buehrle, John Buck. Another year of working with Buehrle and talking to Buehrle and learning from him was really looking forward to it in Miami. We really had a fun and great team that loved being around each other, and I thought we were close to making a serious run. FOF: You’re on the other side of history when you faced Roy Halladay. Perfect game, obviously. I was there, you pitched very well. What was that day like? JJ: It’s awesome, honestly. It’s funny because the first thing that comes to mind is that when 12-year-olds go to Cooperstown for baseball, I get to say I have something in the Hall of Fame. I am a lifetime Hall of Fame member, not for something I did—well, actually, for one thing, I did, which was throwing the first pitch in the stadium—but I have two things in there, and one of them was having my jersey taken for Halladay’s perfect game. FOF: Amazing. Thanks so much for the time, JJ. JJ: It was a pleasure. JJ goes down as one of the franchise’s best starting pitchers of all time. He ranks first in team history in pitching WAR, ERA, Adjusted ERA +, and WPA. He also struck out future Marlin CEO Derek Jeter in the 2010 All-Star Game. https://streamable.com/l/texalm/mp4.mp4One of my personal favorites as a child, it was an honor to speak with JJ.

Kevin Barral and Isaac Azout are joined by Miami Marlins shortstop Joey Wendle. Topics covered on Episode 44 of Fish Unfiltered include: The Marlins' recent series against the St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves Every step of Wendle's professional baseball journey Playing for small-market teamsWhy the Marlins have improved so much from 2022 to 2023Why he doesn't use batting glovesHis clutch home run against the Marlins in 2021 Subscribe to the Fish On First YouTube channel to watch video versions of every Fish Unfiltered episode. In his age-33 season, Wendle is slashing .271/.309/.381 (89 wRC+) through 53 games played. He has already started 40 games at shortstop, nearly doubling his previous high for a single season. Wendle was also with the Marlins in 2022 when they disappointed to the tune of a 69-93 record. Here's how he explains what's made the difference in 2023: Follow Kevin (@kevin_barral), Isaac (@IsaacAzout) and Fish On First (@FishOnFirst) on Twitter. Complete Miami Marlins coverage here at FishOnFirst.com. Our Fish On First podcast programming includes The Offishial Show, Fish Unfiltered, Fishology, State of the Fish and What a Relief. All new episodes are posted to FishOnFirst.com/podcasts. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Podbean, Megaphone or wherever you normally get your pods from.

After getting swept quite convincingly in Atlanta over the weekend, the Marlins came back to Miami on Monday to take on the St. Louis Cardinals. Manager Skip Schumaker was excited to manage against the organization that he called home for so many years. "I mean, almost everything I know, I learned from the St. Louis Cardinals in some capacity—as a coach or player, even in the front office. A very special time over there and I saw a lot of good buddies over there already today." Skip spent eight seasons with the Cardinals as a player and was hired as their bench coach for the 2022 season. In his first game managing against his old team, he provided the magic managerial move that helped Miami steal one from St. Louis. Miami's offense started off hot on Monday against Cards starter Miles Mikolas. After a couple of hits by fellow All-Stars Luis Arraez and Jorge Soler, outfielders Bryan De La Cruz and Jesús Sánchez drove them in with a groundout and a double, respectively, to give the team a 2-0 lead after one. After allowing a one-out single in the 2nd to Nick Fortes, Mikolas settled in and retired 14 straight Marlins. After recording the first out in the 7th, Mikolas walked Garrett Cooper and Jean Segura to put men on 1st and 2nd with one out. Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol, with his team leading 4-2, went to the bullpen to bring in right-hander Andre Pallante. With lefty Joey Wendle at the plate, it seemed like a no brainer to let him bat for himself as he also ranked 7th in MLB in batting average in the month of June. Skip Schumaker politely called Wendle back to the dugout, and sent veteran right-hander Yuli Gurriel to the plate to pinch-hit, causing some confusion—at least in my mind. On the very first pitch, Gurriel drilled one into the right-field corner that scored two and sent a packed loanDepot Park into a frenzy. "It was the reverse (splits) with Pallante. We prepared guys before the game to be ready in case Pallante came in. Yuli and Berti were both ready and that's a huge hit obviously with men on base and to score the runs" said Schumaker. The first-year manager has made countless moves this season that have directly impacted the game positively for Miami, but none them top tonight's. The very next batter, Nick Fortes drove one into right to score the go-ahead run. All of a sudden, Miami stole the lead and never looked back. Braxton's start Marlins starter Braxton Garrett, who is deserving of an All-Star nod in his own right, pitched well against a right-handed heavy Cardinals lineup on Monday. Through his first five innings, he held the Cards to 2 runs on 6 hits, keeping his team tied at 2-2. "I thought it went well, I wasn't super sharp but made pitches when I had to; was able to get a couple of strikeouts with the curveball which is different," said Garrett. In the top of the sixth, Willson Contreras led the off the frame with a hard-hit double (111.2 mph). After recording the next two outs, Skip went to Andrew Nardi to try and strand the runner on second. Instead, Cardinals shortstop Paul DeJong drilled an opposite-field double to give his team the lead. Nardi had been one of the best relievers in baseball at stranding inherited runners, leaving 27 of 30 on base (a 90% clip). "He's been really good in dirty innings. I throw him out there, lefty-righty doesn't matter he's been really good and I still trust Nardi with base runner in scoring position" Skip said on Nardi. Garrett's final line was 5.2 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 6 K. He'll make one more start before the All-Star break against the Phillies at loanDepot Park on Saturday. Miami wound up victorious by a final score of 5-4. Huascar Brazoban "earned" the win, Mikolas took the loss, and Puk saved his 14th game of the season. Miami improves back to 12 games over .500 at 49-37 and the Cardinals fell to a dissapointing 35-49. Miami will play game two of this 4-game set on the 4th of July with Jesús Luzardo on the bump. He will oppose Adam Wainwright.