Marlins stay hot, sweep Orioles
BALTIMORE: Don Mattingly feels like he’s been working all summer, even though his Miami Marlins have played only six games.
And lately, the Marlins manager is making every right move for a gritty team that’s overcome a Covid-19 outbreak and a radical roster change to equal the best start in franchise history and grab hold of first place in the NL East.
Five pitchers combined on a four- hitter for Mattingly’s surprising Marlins, who beat the Baltimore Orioles 2-1 Wednesday night (Thursday in Manila) for a doubleheader sweep.
Brian Anderson homered in the opener, and Miami won 1-0 despite getting only two hits.
After being holed up in a Philadelphia hotel, having 18 players test positive for Covid- 19 and going eight days without playing a game, the Marlins have won three straight at Camden Yards to improve their record to 5-1.
So, guess who owns the best winning percentage in the majors? The Marlins, that’s who. It’s impressive stuff, but it sure hasn’t been easy.
“I feel like we’ve been playing for half a season,” Mattingly said. “It has been a rough trip as far as what has happened to us. And it has just been a different year in the world and with what is going on in sports. But it’s good to put some wins on the board.”
The sweep kept the Marlins atop the division and earned Mattingly his 281st win as Miami’s manager, tying Jack McKeon’s club record.
In a baseball season complete with new rules and an ever-changing, abbreviated schedule, this doubleheader raised the bar on strange. Not only were both games seven innings apiece, but the Orioles were the home team in the opener and the Marlins served as hosts in the nightcap.
And to top it all, the Marlins are unbeaten since emerging from a coronavirusprompted layoff that left them with a roster filled with callups, free agents and rookies. Miami has allowed a total of one run and 10 hits in those three games at Camden Yards.
“Our pitching has been incredible,” Anderson said. “I don’t know how they go from throwing into a (hotel) mattress to going out and getting big league hitters out like that, but whatever they’re doing we’ve got to keep doing it.”
For sure, this new- look club looks nothing like the team that lost 105 games last year.
“From what I can see, they’ve come out with a lot of energy,” Orioles shortstop José Iglesias said. “They were cooped up for a week. Regardless, we’ve got to do a better job.”
The Orioles entered this series coming off a three-game sweep of Tampa Bay, but their bats have been silent against a Miami pitching staff that is not considered to be anything close to extraordinary.
“I don’t know what it is. Just one of those funks,” manager Brandon Hyde said.
In the nightcap. Jon Berti hit an RBI double off Asher Wojciechowski (0-2) in the first inning and scored on a fly ball by Jesús Aguilar. That proved to be enough offense for the Marlins in a bullpen game managed deftly by Mattingly.
Josh A. Smith started, Brian Moran (1-0) struck out three over one inning and Stephen Tarpley
Miami Marlins starting pitcher Elieser Hernandez throws a pitch to the Baltimore Orioles during the first inning in game one of a baseball double-header, on Aug. 5, 2020 (August 6 in Manila) in Baltimore.
got four outs for his first save.
A bad-hop RBI single by Austin Hays in the sixth ruined Miami’s bid for a third straight shutout. Not that it mattered much.
“I can’t be more proud of these guys, the adversity we have been through, being stuck in the hotel,” Anderson said. “These guys just persevere. In a short season you want to get off to a great start and it just happens to be us right now.”
In the opener, Anderson produced the game’s lone run with an opposite-field drive to right off Alex Cobb (1-1).
Miami starter Elieser Hernandez gave up a one-out double to Chance Sisco in the fifth and Pedro Severino followed with a single before Nick Vincent (1-0) got Hanser Alberto to hit into a double play, ending Baltimore’s only threat.
Tuesday night’s game was originally scheduled for July 29 and the first game of the doubleheader was a makeup for July 30. The Marlins were to serve as the “home” team in the nightcap and on Thursday to make up for two games scheduled in Miami on July 27 to 28.
Harding Park is a public golf course with a history of elite champions.
Tiger Woods was No. 1 in the world when he won a World Golf Championship here in 2005, and when he went 5-0 in his matches at the Presidents Cup in 2009. Rory McIlroy was No. 1 when he became the first player who had to win seven matches to capture the Match Play in 2015.
The San Francisco Open finally came to Harding Park in 1944. The winner was Byron Nelson.
It hosted a PGA Tour event in the 1960s called the Lucky International. Six of the seven champions are now in the World Golf Hall of Fame. The other was George Archer, who became a Masters champion.
Is it something about this municipal gem, carved through Monterey cypress trees along the shore of Lake Merced, that allows the best in golf to shine? Or is it merely a coincidence? The PGA Championship, which starts Thursday, figures to add to that legacy.
“It tests all aspects of the game,” McIlroy said Wednesday (Thursday in Manila). “It’s a big golf course, but it’s not wide open. ... Look, I think it’s maybe a little bit of a coincidence that the top players come here and win most of the time. But I think it says a lot about the course that it lets guys play, and it lets them have the freedom to go out there and play the way they want to.” One thing already is certain: This is a different kind of PGA Championship.
It looks like a major with fairways that are narrow but not to the extent they look like bowling alleys. The rough is thick, even more because of the dampness from a marine layer expected to shroud Harding Park all week.
But that’s about all that makes this feel like a major. Gone are the spectators, typical of any tournament during the year of a Covid-19 pandemic that shut the sport down for three months and left players thankful they at least get to compete for major trophies.
Gone is the row of corporate chalets and traffic along Skyline Boulevard. The flashing lights from a portable marquis along the streets warn of road work, not a major golf tournament in the area. Woods feeds off the energy from big galleries, which have followed him for his entire career and his 15 majors, and he isn’t sure what expect. going to energy tive o
“There’s be plent y of from the competit