Cooper leads sudden surge of HR power
Ryan Braun didn’t even bother to backtrack to the left-field fence in the fourth inning Tuesday when Garrett Cooper launched a solo home run out of Miller Park. It was a no-doubter for the outfielder, a 447foot line drive to give the Marlins a three-run lead on the Brewers on the way to a 16-0 win.
The home run was the fifth of Cooper’s career, all in the past 13 games. It was one of three for the Marlins in their series-opening win against the Brewers, their 12th win in 17 games and their 12th game in the past 17 with at least one homer.
“For us, it’s just getting some of the confidence and continue to keep it rolling,” third baseman Brian Anderson said.
Miami’s transformation has been staggering. For the first 41 games of the season, the Marlins (22-36 through Thuesday) averaged 2.6 runs per game and hit a total of 24 home runs. They won only 10 games and were on pace to win fewer than 40.
In the 17 games since, Miami improved its scoring average to 5.9 runs per game. The Marlins hit 22 home runs and won 12 games in that stretch.
Cooper, who had never hit a home run in parts of three MLB seasons prior to May 22, has been a prime source of power since then. Jorge Alfaro, who was getting a day off Wednesday, has four since May 17. Utility player Rosell Herrera hit his first two homers of the season and outfielder Harold Ramirez the first of his career during that recent run.
The Marlins never expected to be a team to win with power. They needed some sort of consistent pop, though, and the past three weeks have provided a template closer to what Miami needs if it wants to climb out of the National League East cellar sometime this summer.
“We’re starting to gain an identity as an offense where we kind of fight, scratch, move the line,” manager Don Mattingly said. “We’ve got a bunch of guys who put the ball in play and it allows us to do some things.”
The offensive turnaround actually traces a bit further back, Mattingly said. In early May, the Marlins traveled to Wrigley Field for a four-game series against the Cubs. Even though Miami dropped three of four in Chicago, Mattingly has frequently pointed to that road series as something of an offensive turning point.
The Marlins beat Cole Hamels in Game 1, then felt good about their collective approach against Cubs starters Jon Lester, Kyle Hendricks and Yu Darvish in the next three.
“Those guys — if you swing at balls in the wrong spots, they wear you out, and we did a really good job of not swinging and staying with what we want to do, not chasing in their areas,” Mattingly said. “The approach was good the whole series and we kind of carried that on, and it’s really just been getting better and better.”
They kept up their approach for the rest of the month and it finally yielded results with a three-game sweep of the Mets in late May, then with another three-game sweep of the Tigers at Detroit in the next series. Miami, which hadn’t homered since their first game against the Cubs, ended a seven-game home run drought by going deep in seven consecutive games.
“As a group, we started being — I’m not going to say more aggressive, but I guess that might be the best way to say it,” Anderson said. “Before that we were getting a little passive. I think we were trying to work counts a little bit too much and we weren’t really trying to drive pitches. I think definitely as a team we’re looking to drive mistakes.”
It certainly doesn’t hurt the Marlins to be on the road, either.
Only six games during the recent power surge have come at Marlins Park and two of those games against the Giants account for two of the five games without a homer for Miami in the 17-game stretch. The Marlins entered Wednesday with home runs in four consecutive games, all of which were played on the road.
“A lot of those games at home, you’re going to have balls that would normally be going out of a lot of fields,” Anderson said. “They get kind of swallowed up in Miami.”