Nate Karzmer

The Marlins clawed their way out of a three-run deficit and had plenty of chances to walk-off Monday night's game a winner, but could not finish the job, losing 7-6. MIAMI,FL- After a tough road trip in which the Marlins took the first game and dropped the final five, Miami returned home to loanDepot park with hopes of getting back on track against the 35-35 St. Louis Cardinals, the same team they defeated for win number one of 2024 back in April. The Marlins trailed for the majority of the night, and after Calvin Faucher allowed three runs to come across in the top of the eighth, it was looking unlikely that a win would come on Monday. That is, until, Bryan De La Cruz crushed a three-run, opposite field homer to tie the game at four just a few minutes later. Both teams exchanged jabs until the twelfth inning, when Masyn Winn delivered the knock-out punch with a game-winning two-run homer off A.J. Puk. Although the Fish continued to fight and made things interesting with a Nick Gordon triple in the bottom of the frame, a questionable tag-up from Gordon and subsequent laser throw from Cardinals right fielder Dylan Carlson took away any chance they had of keeping the contest going. The Marlins lost, 7-6. "I'm super proud of the fight." Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said postgame. "Unfortunately, we didn't win, but I'll take that effort all day long." As mentioned, the Marlins appeared to be dead in the water in the eighth after the Cardinals rallied for three runs, all coming with two outs. After Kent Emanuel limited the damage to just three, Miami came up to bat prepared to face the back of St. Louis' deep bullpen. Down to two outs with two runners on, Bryan De La Cruz sent a rocket to right-center field to tie the score, electrifying the crowd of 9,468. Schumaker noted that De La Cruz saw the ball well all night, and for the Dominican outfielder to hit a "backside" home run shows that "he's going to start getting hot again". After a scoreless ninth and tenth inning, the Cardinals broke the tie with a Dylan Carlson sac fly in the eleventh. Miami struck back fast on a Jesus Sanchez RBI groundout in the bottom half. In the twelfth, eerily similar to his go-ahead home run that he allowed to Cardinal Jordan Walker around this time last year, Marlins reliever A.J. Puk got beat again in crunch time, this time by young star Masyn Winn, who drove a home run to left. "I've said it before, the preparation, everything is there. Metrically, all this stuff looks there. Unfortunately, just the execution at those times is not," Schumaker said of Puk postgame, adding that Puk is, "frustrated you know, you can feel like you can see it because he knows that he's in those spots to get big outs and he knows he's been in those spots before to get big outs...I believe he can still do that". Winn's homer didn't deter Miami's fight, though, as Nick Gordon began the home-half of the inning with an RBI ground-rule double that was rightfully-overturned into a triple down the right-field line, bringing Miami back to within just one run. However, to the dismay of Marlins players and fans, they were back out of the game as fast as they were back in it. Standing at third as the tying-run with zero outs, Gordon tagged-up on a Tim Anderson line out to right. Carlson, who has 40th percentile arm strength (according to Baseball Savant), made a fantastic throw on a line to nab Gordon at home, quite easily. Schumaker defended his base-runner postgame, saying "I trust my coaches and trust Gordon, he's got a good speed. I know," and noted that it would "[take] a perfect throw to get him out" at the plate. Gordon added that Carlson had "to make a perfect throw. He's got to be good. And at the end of the day, we are professionals...we're in a little bit of a rut so we're trying to get something going and just kind of really trying to make plays." Otto Lopez would ground out just one batter later, extending Miami's losing streak to six games. If not for De La Cruz's heroics, the story of the game would be on Redbirds starter Sonny Gray. The 11-year veteran came into Monday night's game dominating the Marlins in his career, possessing a 3-0 record in five starts. Gray one-upped those five good performances with a stellar one on Monday, going 7.2 innings at an extremely efficient pace, averaging almost 11 pitches per inning. After five innings of dominance, the Marlins finally got to Gray in the sixth. Tim Anderson, who has been one of the hottest hitters in all of MLB over the past week with a .417 batting average since coming off the bereavement list, started things for Miami. He notched his second hit of the night with a single through the infield, the same spot where he recorded hit number one. After Otto Lopez and Nick Fortes moved him over, Jazz Chisholm Jr. drove a triple down the first base line to tie the game at one. Braxton Garrett started this game for Miami, coming off two starts where he did not look like the guy most are used to seeing. The 26-year-old possessed an 11.00 ERA in his two starts last week. Monday ended up being just what the doctor ordered, which was a great bounce-back for Garrett. The fifth-year lefty wasn't perfect, but threw six innings of one-run ball, the only blemish being a solo home run in the fifth. When asked about what worked on Monday night, Garrett credited, "mixing my two fastballs. Finally. I felt like, I don't know what the numbers were, but felt like 50/50 sinker, four-seam. My slider was the best it's been all year. I think that was the main thing." Miami looks to even this series on Tuesday night at 6:10pm. Veteran Lance Lynn takes the mound for the Cardinals while Roddery Muñoz, coming off the best start of his young career, toes the slab for the Marlins. View full article

Brooks' one-hit performance headlined Marlins affiliates from June 11-16. Throughout the course of the Minor League Baseball season, Fish On First staffers will release detailed recaps each week taking you through the previous week's developments at all levels of the Miami Marlins organization. Low-A Jupiter Although their week was all over the place in terms of scheduling—with both Wednesday's and Thursday's contests being postponed due to storms all over Palm Beach County and subsequently made up in the form of two doubleheaders—the Hammerheads won five of six matchups against the St. Lucie Mets. The standout performance this past week from not only Jupiter but the entire system came from 2023 11th-round pick Jake Brooks. Brooks, who has debatably been Jupiter's best arm all season as he entered Sunday’s game with a 1.94 ERA, was lights out in his start against St. Lucie. The former UCLA Bruin shined with a seven inning one-hitter while gathering four strikeouts. Brooks’ performance earned him Florida State League Pitcher of the Week honors. Notable hitters for Jupiter included Angelo DiSpigna, Colby Shade and Ryan Ignoffo, with all three hitting north of .389. DiSpigna, specifically, continued his impressive first year in Jupiter, batting an even .500 over 12 at-bats. Prized outfield prospect Dillon Head has spent the past month on the Hammerheads injured list. FOF's Isaac Azout reported earlier on Tuesday that Head will require season-ending hip surgery. High-A Beloit The Sky Carp, like the Hammerheads, were affected by weather, with their Sunday series finale being canceled due to rain. Beloit was still able to clinch a 3-2 series victory over the Quad Cities River Bandits anyway over the course of the week. We’ll start at the dish this time around, as while Osiris Johnson led Sky Carp bats with a .357 average, it was Cameron Barstad who put together the most well-rounded week. Barstad belted two home runs and OPS’d over 1.00, making for his best week of the season. The 2018 draft selection brought his season average up to .234 with his powerful week. On the mound, in his third start in Beloit, Fish On First #1 prospect Thomas White delivered his best start yet. The 19-year old went five strong innings while striking out six River Bandits. With his dominant outing, White now posses a 1.35 ERA over 13 ⅓ innings with just eight hits allowed. While White was dominant, he was one-upped by another flamethrower in FOF #11 Jacob Miller. Miller dazzled in his best start of the season, striking out eleven over six innings of work. Double-A Pensacola Also affected by weather, the Blue Wahoos were forced to play a doubleheader on Sunday, where they took both contests en route to a series win against the Birmingham Barons. The headline for my last MiLB recap was the continued struggles of 2022 first-round pick and current Wahoo Jacob Berry. Berry has still been below-average all around the diamond, but displayed some promise over the past week. The LSU product slashed a productive .300/.364/.450, while striking out just two times. With the emergence of JJ Bleday in Oakland, it is an important reminder that all prospects are on different timelines and while Berry has underperformed in his Marlins tenure, there is still potential in the switch-hitter. Additionally at the plate, power-hitting catcher Paul McIntosh was yet another Marlins hitting prospect that delivered his best hitting performance of the season. McIntosh slashed an impressive .409/.435/.682, in addition to two homers and five RBI’s. Pensacola was short on noteworthy arms outside of starter Evan Fitterer, who tossed five innings of one-run ball. Triple-A Jacksonville The Jumbo Shrimp, unfairly, put together the worst performance of the week as a team in the system as they split their series at home versus the Indianapolis Guardians. Jacksonville had three hitters at the dish who sported over .300 averages this past week in Griffin Conine, Jonah Bride and Javier Sanoja. For Conine, he continues his monstrous month of June, where he is now OPS’ing 1.210 with eight extra-base hits. The 26-year-old is putting together a great case to be called up to the major league club, should a spot open up. Like Pensacola, it was a slow weak on the bump. Only Yonny Chirinos gave Jacksonville both length and efficiency on the mound, as he went five innings allowing no runs to come across. It appears that Chirinos' reward will be receiving a call-up on Wednesday to fill out the Marlins starting rotation. Up Next Low-A Jupiter welcomes the Clearwater Threshers High-A Beloit hosts the Lansing Lugnuts AA-Pensacola takes on the Chattanooga Lookouts AAA-Jacksonville visits the Memphis Redbirds View full article

A wild throw from Mets 3B Mark Vientos ended up being the difference on Tuesday night in Queens. Trailing by a score of 2-1 in the top of the fifth, the Miami Marlins offense started threatening against New York Mets starting pitcher Tylor Megill. Marlins SS Tim Anderson, who enjoyed his best all-around game as a Marlin on Tuesday night, started the rally with a single and subsequent sharp baserunning placed him on third with one out. After a Jazz Chisholm Jr. walk, Bryan De La Cruz plated Anderson with a double to the left-center field gap that tipped off the glove of Mets CF Harrison Bader. The turning point of the contest, however, came two batters later in the form of a Jake Burger ground ball. Following a Josh Bell fly out, Burger ripped the fourth pitch of his at-bat to Mark Vientos at third base. Vientos made a great sliding play to his backhand side and it looked like Megill and the Mets were going to stop the bleeding and head into the bottom of the fifth with the game tied. Fortunately for the Marlins, Vientos rushed his throw to first base, pulling Pete Alonso off the bag and allowing Burger to reach on an error. V3kxT29fVjBZQUhRPT1fVUZCVUJ3SldBMWNBRFFBRlV3QUFVbGRWQUFBQkFGUUFBbFlNQWdFQ1Z3SlVDQWRl.mp4 The mishap gave Miami a 3-2 lead, one which the Marlins were able to hold onto the rest of the night as they started their six-game road trip with a 4-2 victory. Miami got the scoring started early in the second inning. The aforementioned Anderson notched his first RBI since May 5 with a two-out single. Additionally, it was Anderson's first game since returning from the bereavement list (he had missed the Marlins' previous series as a result). Getting to Megill early was key for a Marlins team that could not figure out the righty last season, as Megill won both of his outings in dominant fashion against the Fish in 2023, allowing two earned runs in 11 innings of work. On the mound for the Marlins was ace Jesús Luzardo, who was coming off one of the worst outings of his career a week prior against the Rays. Similar to Megill, Luzardo ran into some trouble in the bottom of the second, allowing two earned runs on two hits and a hit by pitch. After what Luzardo described as a "hairy" inning, he was able to "follow through with (him and Nick Fortes') game plan", finishing his night with 5 ⅔ innings pitched and allowing just two additional hits in his final 2 ⅔ innings before being pulled for Anthony Bender. Both the Mets and Marlins bullpens would hold steady up until the ninth inning, with Bender, Andrew Nardi and Tanner Scott (who we will get to in just a minute) on the Marlins side putting up zeroes. In the ninth, behind Otto Lopez and Nick Gordon, Miami would tack on an important insurance run. After Lopez continued his continued his career-high seven-game hit streak with a single, he successfully stole second and advanced to third on a Francisco Alvarez overthrow. Gordon then pushed a Adam Ottavino sweeper just deep enough to left field to plate Lopez on a sacrifice fly. This brings us to Tanner Scott, who Marlins manager Skip Schumaker called upon to pitch the eighth inning against the meat of the Mets lineup. After going one-two-three, Schumaker decided it was best to stick with Scott for a six-out save opportunity. The powerful lefty proved his manager right, as he breezed through the trio of Starling Marte, Vientos and Tyrone Taylor, locking down the victory for Miami. When asked how he prepared for the first six-out save of his eight-year career, Scott noted that he was, like always, "just trying to get outs" in any situation he is faced with. "You feel really good with Tanner with one run, but especially with two runs," Schumaker said postgame when asked about his closer and the insurance run in the top of the frame. It has been nearly two months since Scott last allowed an earned run on April 14, a streak that spans 20 innings. His last run allowed of any kind came on April 30. The Marlins look to secure a series victory Wednesday night in The Big Apple with Braxton Garrett taking the mound. Garrett, like Luzardo, is coming off a rough start in which he allowed five earned runs in just 2 ⅔ innings pitched against the same Rays. David Peterson, who owns a 2-2 record and 2.06 ERA against Miami in his career, takes the ball for New York. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 pm. View full article

As a guest on Fish Unfiltered, Skip Schumaker gives an update on Max Meyer. The Marlins optioned the talented right-hander to Triple-A nearly two months ago. Miami Marlins manager and reigning National League Manager of the Year Skip Schumaker was the most recent guest on Fish on First's Fish Unfiltered podcast. He provided a plethora of information about his personal life in the midst of an 162-game season and how the Marlins season has gone thus far, among other intriguing topics. You can check it out here. At around the 19-minute mark, Ely Sussman asked Schumaker when he expects a big league return from starting pitcher Max Meyer. Meyer was exceptional early in the 2024 campaign with a 2-0 record and 2.12 ERA in three starts before being shockingly sent down just two days after the best of those starts, as he went six innings allowing just one run against the Atlanta Braves. When Meyer was sent down, the Marlins had right-hander Edward Cabrera completing an injured list stint and were experimenting with A.J. Puk as a starter. Unfortunately, Cabrera has since gone back on the IL. Puk missed some time as well, then reverted to his accustomed reliever role. Sixto Sánchez (right shoulder inflammation) isn't an option, either. Is it time to bring up Meyer to fill the rotation void? "I know you’ll see him up here soon," the second-year manager replied. He cited discussions that the Marlins staff had with Meyer back in the offseason and in spring training about their plan to "protect" the 25-year-old on his way back from tearing his UCL and subsequent Tommy John surgery in August 2022. Schumaker also mentioned that Meyer needed to be "built up and not just this (MLB) level" and "real innings didn't feel like the right move, just to throw 170 innings first year in." When it came to the demotion itself, Schumaker noted that Meyer was rightfully upset and not "mentally all-in on the decision," which had a negative effect on Meyer's first two starts in Jacksonville, where he gave up a combined 7 earned runs over 5 ⅔ innings of work. However, in the words of his manager, Meyer has "gotten back on track" and had an "outstanding" last three outings, citing the development of his sinker and glimpses of a "really good" changeup. The former third overall pick has allowed a drastically different 5 runs over 11 innings with 17 strikeouts. In his latest start against the Durham Bulls, Meyer punched out seven batters while walking just one. With the Jumbo Shrimp, Meyer has thrown on a weekly schedule and had a conservative pitch count. As a result, MLB and MiLB combined, he's been limited to 40 ⅔ innings so far in 2024. Meyer will start at least one more time in the minors on Friday (his eighth start since being optioned). Right-hander Roddery Muñoz is likely to be recalled for the time being—he's projected to start in Miami on Saturday. If Meyer can continue what he's done recently, Marlins fans should not have to wait long to see him competing at the highest level again. View full article

Wednesday night's 5-3 loss gives the Marlins a near-unfathomable 3-23 record against their in-state rival since 2019. MIAMI, FL—The two-game Citrus Series finale between the visiting Tampa Bay Rays and Miami Marlins on Wednesday night generated more pregame buzz than your usual midweek contest at loanDepot park, thanks to actors Will Smith and Martin Lawrence making an appearance just minutes before the 6:40 start time, with the latter throwing out the first pitch while promoting their new film "Bad Boys: Ride or Die". The entertainment and excitement boiled into the first inning, as both teams combined for five runs off of three extra-base hits. Unfortunately for Miami, they only could tack on one more run the rest of the contest while Tampa Bay added two insurance runs. Their bullpen locked down a 5-3 victory and sweep. Braxton Garrett, making his fifth start of the season, toed the slab for Miami. The Alabama native was coming off back-to-back dazzling starts in Arizona and San Diego where he allowed just one earned run over 14 innings of work. As hinted at in the introduction, his success did not continue against Tampa Bay, a lineup that was struggling to put up runs coming into their series in South Florida. After getting Yandy Díaz to ground out, the rest of the Rays lineup begun to see the young lefty quite well, ripping two doubles and a single that was misplayed by Marlins outfielder Jesús Sánchez, leading to an early 3-0 deficit for Garrett and Co. Fortunately for Garrett, the Marlins would pick up their starter in the bottom half of the inning. Josh Bell, Otto Lopez and Jesús Sánchez, who doubled to the left-center field gap and continues to hit the ball hard and look much-improved at the plate, all contributed to close the gap to 3-2. Garrett had a clean second frame, but ran into more trouble in the third, with the Rays tacking on two more extra-base hits and runs before Marlins manager Skip Schumaker saw enough out of his starter, calling on Declan Cronin, subsequently ending Garrett's night with just 2 ⅔ innings pitched. That was his shortest start of the season. "He didn't have many first-pitch strikes and that's just unlike him," Schumaker said after the game. "He's usually commanding all four quadrants and just didn't feel like he had the feel for any real pitch." Garrett only collected nine whiffs all night. On the bright side for the Fish, Cronin, A.J. Puk, Anthony Bender, Andrew Nardi and Calvin Faucher all excelled in relief, allowing eight hits over 6 ⅓ innings of work. The Marlins 'pen came into Wednesday night's game with a sneaky good 3.52 ERA in their last ten contests and continue to show improvement as a unit. Although the solid pitching gave the Marlins a chance to tie or even take the lead throughout the game, their offense could not build upon their first-inning rally against Zach Eflin. Fresh off the IL, Eflin retired the last 10 batters he faced before exiting. The Marlins got runners into scoring position in both the fifth and the eighth innings, but could only push across one run courtesy of a Josh Bell single in the aforementioned fifth. Bell continues to stay hot for Miami, and with his RBI single, he extended his hitting streak to eight games, matching the longest such streak he's had as a Marlin. Pete Fairbanks successfully shut things down for Tampa Bay in the ninth, securing a 5-3 win and series sweep while collecting his eighth save of 2024 with a dominant 1-2-3 inning. Miami is back in action this Friday at loanDepot park against the American League Central-leading Cleveland Guardians. Ryan Weathers takes the ball for the Marlins while Logan Allen gets the nod for Cleveland. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10. View full article

Tampa Bay Rays right-hander Shawn Armstrong talks with Fish On First about his very brief Miami Marlins tenure and the keys to his 2024 success. View full video

The Marlins outfielder has recently started to find success at the plate that aligns with his expected stats. Miami Marlins outfielder Jesús Sanchez has always been near the top of exit velocity leaderboards since he broke into MLB. The issue in years prior, as many know, has been his ability to translate that pure power and strength to on-field success. The most extreme example can be found in the aforementioned 2020 shortened season, when Sánchez was called up to make his debut in the 60-game sprint. Although the sample size is small (just 25 at-bats), Sanchez averaged 95.4 mph exit velocity, flashing his ability to impact the baseball at such a young age against big league pitching. The only problem? Sanchez went 1-for-25 with 11 strikeouts against said big league arms before being optioned back to the alternate training site, where he would remain for the rest of the season. While Sánchez's potential has certainly flashed throughout his four years as a Marlin, entering the 2024 season, the now 26-year-old never hit above .253. He has struggled with working counts, poor chase and whiff rates, along with a high strikeout percentage his entire big league career. We are now over two months into the 2024 season, and Sánchez is still doing what fans are accustomed to seeing out of him: hitting the baseball incredibly hard and putting up tape-measure home runs, while at the same time slashing a moderate .250/.305/.356. He's producing more like a replacement-level player than one that was once heralded as a Top 100 prospect. Here is where things get interesting. Underlying metrics show that there have been significant, positive changes in his game this year, not just from 2023, but from his entire career. Sánchez has been one of, if not the unluckiest hitter in all of baseball. For context, below is Sánchez's Baseball Savant batting profile from last season: Here is the 2024 edition: Sánchez has not only managed to increase his average exit velocity and hard-hit percentage, but he has also lowered his strikeout percentage by over six percent. Combine all those factors together and you get the staggering expected stats at the top of his page. First and most astonishing, Sánchez's expected slugging percentage is .511, a 155-point difference from his actual .356. That makes him MLB's unluckiest hitter, in terms of slugging, by a wide margin. Moving to wOBA, a stat that is "formulated using exit velocity, launch angle and, on certain types of batted balls, Sprint Speed", Sánchez comes in at second-unluckiest with a .365 xwOBA. The 70-point gap between that and his .295 wOBA is just behind Chicago Cubs 3B Christopher Morel. Finally, Sánchez's expected batting average sits at .291, higher than players enjoying great seasons such as Corey Seager and Gunnar Henderson. He is the 20th-unluckiest in baseball when contrasted to his current .250. The good news for the young Dominican and Marlins fans alike is that after fifty-plus games of countless line drive outs and hard-hit balls being hit directly at defenders, Sánchez's luck is finally turning around. Over the last 15 days, Sánchez is slashing .353/.405/.588 with 12 hits, two doubles and home runs and four RBI's. The most notable performance of this stretch came last Friday against the defending World Series champion Texas Rangers. Sánchez went 3-for-3 collecting both of the previously mentioned doubles, along with blasting a three-run home run to left-center field to give Miami some breathing room. Against right-handed pitching, Marlins manager Skip Schumaker has kept Sánchez in the middle of the lineup all season (he'll bat fifth on Tuesday night vs. the Tampa Bay Rays). If these much-deserved results continue to come, this could be the breakout year from Sánchez that both the Marlins front office and fans have been waiting for. View full article

Padres knuckleballer Matt Waldron kept Marlins hitters guessing all night. Matt Waldron, an anomaly in today's game who lives off a low-90s fastball and a dazzling knuckleball, took the mound for Mike Shildt's San Diego Padres on Tuesday night in game two of a three-game series against the Miami Marlins. Waldron had been a below-average starter thus far in 2024, but in this start, he threw his aforementioned knuckleball better than ever and dominated for seven innings en route to a 4-0 Padres win, snapping Miami's streak of four series wins in a row. "The knuckleball was real," Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said postgame. "We couldn't figure it out." That was evident from the first inning. Waldron generated awkward swings from both Bryan De La Cruz and Jesús Sanchez for strikeouts, a theme that would continue the rest of the night. The 27-year old would finish with eight K's, all of them coming on the knuckleball. The key for Waldron was staying out of high-pressure situations, as there was only a runner in scoring position three times all night, and all three times it was Josh Bell with two outs. Bell and Jake Burger were the only Marlins bats who could figure anything out against Waldron, as the 2023 trade deadline acquisition duo had five of the six hits Miami recorded all night. The righty finished his outing with no earned runs for the second time this season. 86d1325b-ca0dc7c7-85dcdd80-csvm-diamondx64-asset_1280x720_59_4000K.mp4 Marlins ace Jesús Luzardo, coming off the best start of his career just six days prior against the Milwaukee Brewers, was tasked with navigating the powerful Padres lineup. While Luzardo started his outing by getting former teammate Luis Arráez to strike out, the rest of Arráez's new teammates picked him up, and in a hurry. Fernando Tatís Jr.dropped a single into right field just a pitch later and Jurickson Profar broke the tie with a two-run homer to left-center on a ball Marlins center fielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. came inches away from bringing back. Those were the first earned runs Luzardo has allowed in the first inning all season. While things could've gotten out of control, Luzardo would settle in after the first inning. The lefty was his usual self from innings two to four, albeit gathering no strikeouts, instead relying on his defense behind him to pick him up. Trouble arose again in the fifth, though, as Arráez got his buddy back in round three, singling over the shortstop's head just like he'd done countless time during his Marlins tenure. San Diego followed with more singles from Tatís and Profar, the latter bringing in Arráez to make it a 3-0 ballgame. Luzardo limited the damage as he got Manny Machado to strike out and Jake Cronenworth to fly out, and after a clean sixth inning, Skip Schumaker had seen enough, turning the game over to Andrew Nardi. Wednesday's performance was yet another encouraging outing from Luzardo, and perhaps an audition in front of a possible trade suitor (the Padres reportedly expressed interest in acquiring Luzardo last offseason). Nardi would go on to pitch a 1-2-3 seventh inning before Emmanuel Ramirez came in for his fifth appearance of the season in the eighth, where San Diego tacked on an insurance run with some small ball and a Donovan Solano single. Miami needed to get four runs across in the top of the ninth if they wanted to keep things going, but Jeremiah Estrada instead struck out the side, locking up the shut out and clinching a series win for the Friars. San Diego looks for the series sweep Wednesday at 4:10 EST. Braxton Garrett, who similar to Luzardo, is coming off the best performance of his career in his last start, takes the ball for Miami. Yu Darvish, who has a career regular season ERA of 5.59 and a playoff loss against the Marlins, looks to break out the brooms for the Padres. View full article

The age-old phrase, "baseball is a game of inches", was on full display Saturday night at Chase Field. Four series wins in a row. That is what was on the minds of Miami Marlins coaches and players as they entered game two of their three-game set against the reigning National League champion Arizona Diamondbacks. Miami, as they did on Friday night, got runs on the board early against one of the best pitchers in baseball. In game one it was against Zac Gallen and in game two, it was against newly signed Jordan Montgomery. Dane Myers started things off with a lead-off double on the second pitch of the game, and he came around to score courtesy of a Josh Bell RBI single. The Marlins had more ducks on the pond in the frame, but Montgomery limited the damage, allowing just one run to come in. Scoring early in games is always nice, but it is especially important when Sixto Sánchez is on the bump. He has had a rough go in the first inning of every game he has started thus far in 2024, as he entered Saturday night's contest with an ERA of 19.80 in the first inning. While the Fish did a great job of getting him a cushion, those woes continued. A walk and subsequent stolen base from Corbin Carroll put pressure on the 25-year old early, and while a Ketel Marte strikeout and Joc Pederson lineout got two outs on the board, back-to-back doubles from Christian Walker and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. put the D-backs on top, 2-1. The two earned runs somehow lowered Sánchez's first-inning ERA to 19.50. The Snakes would strike back for one more run the next inning, but that would be all, as Sánchez finished his night completing five innings for the first time all season. While the righty still hasn't solved his first-inning issues, this was arguably his best start of the season and a step in the right direction. Although Sánchez's performance gave the Marlins a chance to take the lead back, Montgomery had other plans. The 2023 World Series champion was steady from innings two to five, allowing a couple of baserunners but holding Skip Schumaker's club to one run. In the top of the sixth, though, things got interesting. After a Jake Burger double, former Arizona farmhand Jazz Chisholm Jr. stepped in the box with one out and hammered a fly ball over the head of the speedy Carroll in center field, scoring Burger. The ball took a weird bounce off the base of the wall, and Chisholm rounded second and went for a triple. After being initially called safe on the field, D-backs manager Torey Lovullo requested a challenge that ended up being successful, clearing the bases and taking the tying run off of third. TVpSTDVfVjBZQUhRPT1fQmdJQVhGSUdYZ2NBRGxjQ0FnQUFWd0lDQUFOVVZGTUFWQVpSVlZBRlVsRldBd2RU.mp4 One pitch later, Tim Anderson hit a single up the middle that would have brought Chisholm home. That is the closest Miami would get to tying things up, as Montgomery escaped the sixth inning and turned things over to an Arizona bullpen that was lights out other than a Emmanuel Rivera double in the eighth. Paul Sewald went 1-2-3 against the bottom of the Marlins lineup in the top of the ninth, locking down a 3-2 win for his D-backs. Miami out-hit Arizona 11-5, but went just 2-for-9 with RISP. In relief of Sánchez, Anthony Bender, Andrew Nardi and Calvin Faucher combined for three hitless innings with five strikeouts. The Marlins bullpen has not allowed a run since Tuesday. Miami looks to clinch a series victory Sunday at 4:10 EST with the hot Ryan Weathers toeing the slab. Weathers goes into the rubber match with an ERA of 2.33 in the month of May. Rookie Blake Walston makes the start for Arizona. View full article

In addition to the big league club enjoying the most success they have had all season, Miami Marlins minor league affiliates saw some great performances from May 14-20. Throughout the course of the Minor League Baseball season, Fish On First staffers will release detailed recaps each week taking you through the previous week's developments at all levels of the Miami Marlins organization. Low-A Jupiter It was a tough week for the Hammerheads, who were only able to take one game out of the six they played against the Dunedin Blue Jays. The biggest story of the week for Jupiter was the debut of Fish on First #5 prospect Dillon Head, the centerpiece of the prospect package Miami received for Luis Arráez. Head did not make his organizational debut until last Tuesday due to injury, but it was worth the wait, as the 19-year-old went 3-for-4 with a triple and two stolen bases. Head finished his first week in the Marlins system slashing .333/.333/.500, but has not played since last Thursday. While it was a slow week at the plate for the Hammerheads as a whole, another bat that saw a great couple of days was Angelo DiSpigna, who slashed an elite .400/.500/.800, in addition to belting his first career home run. An undrafted free agent out of Georgia Tech, his OPS is up to .864 on the season. On the mound, Noble Meyer (FOF #2) continued his recent stretch of dominance as he went five innings, allowing just one hit while striking out eight on Saturday. Meyer has not allowed an earned run in three consecutive starts. Although Meyer’s command is not all the way there just yet—he had four walks and a hit by pitch—his stuff is so overpowering that he can still take games over. High-A Beloit Beloit, like Jupiter, only won a singular game from their six-game set against the Milwaukee Brewers-affiliated Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. Unlike Jupiter, though, the Sky Carp had a dominant hitting performance throughout the entire week, courtesy of Josh Zamora. Zamora, who is repeating High-A after spending time with both Beloit and Pensacola a season ago, slashed a powerful .478/.520/.913 with three home runs. The 25-year-old's performance this past week continues an interesting trend where he is hitting .348 on the road, a drastic difference compared to his .220 average at home. When it comes to arms, Cade Gibson delivered the best outing from the past week, chucking seven scoreless innings while striking out three Timber Rattlers. Gibson has quietly had a very solid year thus far, sporting a 3.09 ERA. The Louisiana native has been even better as of late, allowing just four earned runs in his past three starts. Finally for Beloit, Emmett Olson (FOF #27), who has arguably been the most impressive arm in the entire system so far in 2024, did more Emmett Olson things, allowing just one earned run in 4 ⅔ innings of work. Olson’s season ERA is a staggering 0.56, with opponents hitting just .158 against the young southpaw. Double-A Pensacola The Blue Wahoos upped the status quo when it came to winning amongst Marlins affiliates this week, but not by much, going 2-4 against the Montgomery Biscuits. Two of their losses were by one run, while the other two were much more lopsided, with the Wahoos going down 9-1 and 18-1, respectively. We’ll start with the pitching this time around, and for good reason. Both Valente Bellozo and Paul Campbell dazzled in their starts this past week, with the former pitching seven two-hit innings, punching out eight while allowing just one run, and the latter going six innings, allowing no runs. The otherwise lackluster Pensacola offense picked up both Bellozo and Campbell, as they recorded wins for their efforts. Speaking of offense, two notable names from this past week include another Arráez acquisition in Jakob Marsee (FOF #7) and 2022 sixth overall pick Jacob Berry (FOF #21). We’ll start positive with Marsee, who is finding his footing after being sent over from San Diego. The outfielder hit a team best .286, which included two doubles and two RBI’s, bringing his OPS with Pensacola up to .811. Unfortunately for Jacob Berry, he continued to struggle last series, hitting a team low .045, recording just one hit over 22 at-bats. Berry, who is repeating Double-A, started his season with a home run and recorded a walk-off a few weeks into the season that had the potential to get him on the right track against Southern League pitching, but he's been unable to take real strides forward in his development. Berry is slashing .141/.197/.211 and has not shown much improvement since turning pro. Couple that with his below-average defense and you get a ticking clock for a prospect who was believed to be, at the time of the 2022 draft, the “safest pick” for the Marlins. Triple-A Jacksonville The Jumbo Shrimp mirrored the Blue Wahoos with a 2-4 record this past week, as they welcomed the visiting Nashville Sounds to 121 Financial Ballpark. Javier Sanoja (FOF #26) was the standout bat for the Shrimp this past series, who has caught fire as of late. Sanoja slashed an extremely impressive 455./536./636 with two doubles and a triple, as well as recording five walks, just to cement how well he was seeing Nashville pitchers. The 21-year-old has had a stellar month of May, hitting .339 while OPS’ing .847. He has the third-most hits in the Marlins farm system with 40. This brings us to the rehabbing Tim Anderson, who did something that he has not done at a professional level in almost a year, and that is hit a home run. Anderson has not gone deep in MLB since he was still a member of the Chicago White Sox on July 29, 2023, and even then, it was his first and only long ball of 2023. After playing two games in Jacksonville over the weekend, the former All-Star was activated off the IL on Tuesday. Roddery Muñoz was the headliner for Jacksonville on the mound last week, throwing six innings while allowing just one run on Sunday. Muñoz, who looked great in his first two outings at the MLB level, is on the short list to be called up again if the big league team needs another arm. Up Next Low-A Jupiter heads west to face the Tampa Tarpons High-A Beloit visits the Great Lakes Loons AA-Pensacola welcomes the Tennessee Smokies to town AAA-Jacksonville travels north to take on the Gwinnett Stripers View full article

The Dodgers possess the most dangerous lineup in MLB and Teoscar Hernández flexed their depth in Wednesday's series finale. 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. NFhEbnFfVjBZQUhRPT1fVkFGWUFRY01WZ29BQ3daUlVBQUFDVk1DQUFCWEJWTUFVRlpXVXdjTUJBUmNWZ1pV.mp4 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. View full article

After a lengthy delay, JJ Bleday and Co. put this game out of reach quickly, as Oakland took down Miami, 20-4. While most of the attention from the fanbase and media alike remained on the departure of Luis Arraez (who went 4-6 with an RBI in his Padres debut) and the future of the team, the officially Arraez-less Miami Marlins took on the Oakland Athletics on Saturday in game two of their three- game set from the Oakland Coliseum. What ensued over the next three hours was historical, in the sense that Miami allowed 20+ runs for just the seventh time in franchise history and the first time since the infamous 29-9 waxing at the hands of the Braves on September 9, 2020. Oakland put up a staggering 21 hits, six home runs, and featured seven players with multi-hit games and two with multi-homer games. The original scheduled start time for Saturday's contest was 4:07 EST, but due to storms in the Oakland area, the game was delayed over three hours and first pitch was not thrown until 7:30. Although rain delays are often associated with slow offensive starts to games, the A's wasted no time getting on the board in the bottom of the second. Unfortunately for Marlins starter Trevor Rogers, Oakland would get their first runs of the contest off of shaky defense behind him, a common theme in his recent starts. Jazz Chisholm Jr. came up just short on a Shea Langeliers fly ball that resulted in a triple. After a Darell Hernaiz RBI single and JJ Bleday walk, Miami's defense failed to back up Rogers once again, as Vidal Bruján made his fifth error of the season, loading the bases and getting Rogers in a high-leverage situation early in the game. Rogers would limit the damage and allow just two runs in the second. That, unfortunately, was the high of Rogers' seventh start of the season. After Miami went 1-2-3 in the top of the third, Oakland's offense started right where they left off in the bottom of the frame. Brent Rooker hit a towering two-run blast just nine pitches into the inning. Four batters later, Bleday, who was drafted fourth overall by the Marlins in 2019 and shipped to Oakland for A.J. Puk in February 2023, got his former team back with a three-run homer of his own to break the game open. After Rogers walked his next batter, Brett Harris (who we will get to soon), Skip Schumaker saw enough as he pulled the lefty from his start just 2 ⅓ innings in. Darren McCaughan took over for Rogers, and the aforementioned Rooker welcomed the 28-year-old with his second two-run homer of the inning. When it was all said and done, the A's put up ten runs in the bottom of the third. Miami went scoreless again in the top of the fourth, marking the first time in franchise history the Marlins allowed 13 runs without scoring one of their own through four innings. Oakland scored eight more runs through the final five innings of the contest. Notably amongst A's hitters, Bleday continued his dominant night adding two more hits and another RBI. It was arguably his best offensive performance of his young career, go figure. Langeliers had a HR of his own as he took Emmanuel Rivera deep to help the A's reach 20. The best story of the night, though, was new big leaguer Brett Harris. Harris had the first two hits of his career, both being home runs. Harris, who is the A's #9 prospect per MLB Pipeline and debuted in Friday's series opener, had a great presence of family and friends in attendance. As for Miami, offensively, two of their seven hits were home runs, courtesy of Bryan De La Cruz and Nick Fortes, who hit his first long ball of 2024. The Marlins look to avoid the sweep on Sunday with Sixto Sánchez toeing the rubber at 4:07. Joe Boyle takes the ball for Mark Kotsay's A's. View full article

Although he came into the game with a career 4.59 ERA against the Marlins, Max Fried had arguably the best start of his career en route to a 5-0 Braves win. Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Max Fried is very familiar with the Miami Marlins. The 30-year-old, who has been at the top of the Braves rotation for a couple years now, went into Tuesday night's game having faced the Marlins 13 times in his career, with the majority of those starts not ending in his favor, sporting a 4.59 ERA against his divisional rival. Fried had just seen this Marlins team two weeks ago at loanDepot park and enjoyed a good outing against them, but he had an 11.70 ERA in his other starts this season. Tuesday looked like a good opportunity for Miami to end their 11-inning scoreless streak. Instead, Fried doubled down. The veteran lefty twirled a gem, throwing a Maddux, a complete game shutout with under 100 pitches. It was the third of his career. His final line was a staggering 9.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 0 HR on 92 pitches. Two of the three hits Fried allowed were instantly wiped off as he rolled two double play balls immediately after. The Marlins have hit more grounders than any other MLB team and that played right into his hands throughout the game. 1e898d34-bde36139-89cdbfd9-csvm-diamondx64-asset_1280x720_59_4000K.mp4 Tuesday night's performance was undoubtedly the best start of Fried's career against the Marlins, as he lowered his career ERA against them to 4.03. Trevor Rogers took the ball for Miami. If you did not watch the game and simply looked at his line, it would appear as if the Braves did what the Braves usually do. However, Rogers was much more impressive, as poor defense and bloop hits were the keys to Atlanta's offense getting runs on the board. In the bottom of the second inning, Marlins 3B Otto Lopez made an error on an Adam Duvall ground ball. Against a team like the Braves, they will almost certainly make you pay for free baserunners, and it did not take them long to do just that. Michael Harris II smoked a double and David Fletcher hit a sacrifice fly to get Atlanta on the board early, 2-0. Rogers cruised from innings three to five, but ran into more trouble in the sixth. Marcell Ozuna ripped a 102.7 mph grounder by Luis Arraez that was not scored as an error, but a ball that Arraez could have made a play on. The Braves made the Marlins pay for it again, throwing up three runs in the frame, highlighted by an Adam Duvall blast that broke the game open. Anthony Bender and Declan Cronin gave up no runs out of the Marlins bullpen, but as mentioned earlier, Fried was too much for Marlins hitters to handle, clinching the Braves a series victory after getting Bryan De La Cruz to ground out to end the contest. Dating back to 2022, the Marlins have lost 12 of their last 13 games at Truist Park. Miami looks to salvage one game out of this series on Wednesday night. Sixto Sánchez will make his first start since the 2020 NLDS against these same Braves. Standing in the struggling Marlins offense's way is Reynaldo López, sporting a 0.50 ERA thus far in 2024. View full article