Marlins keep it fun as they brace for serious showdown
The Marlins are playing loose, confident and with a chip on their shoulders during an improbable playoff run. Next up: The NLDS vs. the Atlanta Braves.
HOUSTON
As the Marlins prepare to continue their unexpected playoff run, a message popped up in the players’ group chat from Francisco Cervelli.
The veteran catcher had just announced his retirement from the sport after 13 seasons and was sidelined the final month of the season with a concussion but still remains heavily involved with the team.
The message, summarized Monday by shortstop Miguel Rojas: “Our game is fun. Our game is not the same as everyone else. We play our game like it’s the Little League World Series, and we’re going to keep it that way.”
The Marlins are playing loose. They’re playing confident. And they’re still playing with a chip on their shoulder as their playoff run continues. Few expected them to make it this far, let alone make the playoffs even with the field expanded to 16 teams.
The next step starts Tuesday, with a bestof-5 National League Division Series matchup with the Atlanta Braves at Houston’s Minute Maid Park.
They made it with their old school style of speed, small ball, pitching and defense, all while keeping the mood lighthearted as they navigated through a coronavirus outbreak, 18 players making debuts and 28 games over the final 24 days of the season.
The veterans are providing needed guidance. The rookies are keeping the clubhouse light. The results are still coming.
Why change now just because the stage is getting bigger?
“It’s just fun,” outfielder Monte Harrison said. “Just go play baseball and take the pressure off yourself. As a kid, you don’t think about getting two hits this game because they’re gonna help me in arbitration or do this or do that. Man, just go out and have fun. The dude’s on our team, we’re joking and laughing all the time. That’s just guys on the team being themselves. I hope that culture stays here because it attracts winning and attracts a calm culture to be yourself.”
The Marlins hope their style of baseball will keep up with the Braves, a team that has won the National League East each of the past three years and the team Marlins manager
Don Mattingly referred to on several occasions as the “gold standard” for the division.
The task at hand is simple: Three wins advances them the next round.
“We understand how good they are and we have respect for them,” Mattingly said, “but we think we can beat anybody.”
To do that, the Marlins are going to have to stop one of Major League Baseball’s most potent lineups. The Braves led MLB this season with a .832 OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging) while finishing second with 348 runs scored and 103 home runs. Five players hit doubledigit home runs, led by former Marlin Marcell Ozuna with a National League-best 18.
“Obviously a well-rounded club,” Mattingly said, “a team that’s confident.
They kind of have everything . ... We’ve got our hands full.”
Mattingly is speaking from experience. The Braves are 57-28 against the Marlins since Mattingly took over as manager ahead of the 2016 season. That’s a 67.1 winning rate.
The Braves won six of 10 games in the regular-season series this year, but the series was closer than it may appear.
Yes, there was the Marlins’ 29-9 loss on Sept. 9 and the 11-1 loss Sept. 23, but look at the other eight matchups in the series. The Marlins outscored the Braves by 17 runs in the four wins. The four losses outside of the two blowouts? Atlanta won by a combined 11 runs. Two of
Miami’s losses were decided by one run.
“The past couple years, they really beat us up. This year, I thought we played them a lot better,” Mattingly said. “We know they’re a handful. We’ll just be playing them one game at a time. You’ve got to make pitches. We’re gonna have to swing the bats. They’re a tough matchup. We’ll be ready to play. Our guys are good. We talk about it. Just get ready to play. Give us a time and a place, and we’ll be there.”
The time is 2:08 p.m., the first game played every day each of the next four days. Should the series reach Game 5, the finale would take place Saturday at 4:08 p.m.
The location is Minute Maid Park, normally home of the Houston Astros. MLB and the MLB Players Association agreed to stage the expanded postseason beyond the wild-card rounds in neutral sites in order to minimize travel because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Braves, even as heavy favorites on paper to win the series, also know not to take the Marlins lightly. They saw the Marlins’ improvements first hand, from the veteran offseason acquisitions (Corey Dickerson, Jesus Aguilar and Brandon Kintzler, among others) to their top prospects stepping up at the MLB level (Sixto Sanchez, Jazz Chisholm and Harrison, among others).
“They’ve done a good job of putting that team together,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “That team was gonna be good regardless if it was 60 or 160 [games].”
Mattingly, appreciative of the praise, hopes this is just the beginning.
“You do fight for respect in this game,” Mattingly said. “Sometimes from the outside, you may get respect for all kinds of different reasons. Maybe because you got a great bat flip or you’re good on social media or whatever. But within the game, you want respect from the other players, coaches, people that you feel like that actually know the game and understand it. So it’s always good to hear that because we’ve been trying to grow.”
Another chance to gain respect begins Tuesday.
“They can be the favorite,” said Marlins Game 1 starter Sandy Alcantara, “but you never know what’s going to happen tomorrow and the next couple days. We’ve got to go outside, fight a lot. Let’s see what happens.”