Starter Urena breaks arm and will miss playoffs
Starting pitcher Jose Urena will miss the Marlins’ postseason run after being hit by a comebacker in the third inning of the Marlins’ 5-0 win against the New York Yankees on Sunday to close out the regular season.
X-rays revealed the Marlins’ starting pitcher has a non-displaced ulna fracture in his right forearm.
The Yankees’ DJ LeMahieu turned on an 85.8mph slider that went back to the pitcher’s mound with a 103.9-mph exit velocity. Urena turned and tried to make a play, but the ball ricocheted off Urena’s right forearm.
Urena grimaced in pain for a few moments and was taken out of the game after the Marlins’ medical staff and pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. evaluated him near the mound.
“Obviously disappointed with that. We know he’s disappointed,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “It could have been worse. He could have shattered that wrist.”
Urena is the most experienced starting pitcher in Miami’s rotation, with 142 career starts.
He was the club’s Opening Day starter in 2018 and 2019 but missed most of last season while dealing with a herniated disc in his lower back and finished the season in the bullpen.
He missed the first month-plus of the season as one of 18 players who tested positive for COVID-19. For the season, Urena posted a 5.40 ERA over 23 1⁄3 innings spanning five starts.
Urena would have been used as a long-relief option out of the bullpen for the Marlins when they begin the best-of-3 wildcard round of the postseason on Wednesday.
Should the Marlins advance beyond that, he was expected to be at the tail end of Miami’s rotation behind Sandy Alcantara, Sixto Sanchez, Pablo Lopez and Trevor Rogers.
CASTANO’S FIRST WIN
With Urena out, Dan Castano was given another opportunity to step up. He did his job. This time, though, the rookie was rewarded with first career MLB win.
Castano threw 6 1⁄3 scoreless innings of relief and was pulled with two outs in the ninth.
Castano walked Aaron Judge to begin his outing before getting Aaron Hicks to fly out to right field and Luke Voit to ground out to Jon Berti at second base. He allowed no more than one baserunner each inning he took the mound.
Overall, Castano has a 3.03 ERA in 29 2⁄3 innings spanning seven appearances this season (six starts).
Each of his final four starts came in doubleheader games. The Marlins went 3-1 in those games, but Castano didn’t make it through five innings in any of those outings and thus was not in line for the win.
He was pulled after 4 2⁄3 innings in a 4-0 win over the Mets on Aug. 25 in which he was seen audibly pleading with Mattingly for one more out. He went 4 1⁄3 innings in their 14-3 win over the Nationals on Sept. 18.
ALL THAT JAZZ
Rookie middle infielder Jazz Chisholm, the fourth-ranked prospect in the Marlins’ organization and the No. 62 overall prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline, went 2 for 4 at the plate with a double, home run and three RBI to lead Miami’s offense in the regular-season finale. He went 3 for 8 overall in the final two games.
Chisholm also made a pair of great defensive plays to rob Gary Sanchez and LeMahieu of hits in the fourth and seventh innings, respectively. Both plays ended innings.
THIS AND THAT
With the win, Miami went 31-29 over this 60-game, pandemic-shortened season and finished with their first winning record since 2009.
Brian Anderson, who had his only day off of the season on Saturday, hit his 11th home run of the season Sunday.
Outfielder Starling Marte left Sunday’s game with a left ear contusion after he was hit by a pitch from Clarke Schmidt. The Marlins don’t expect him to miss playing time.