Secondary games enable pitchers to get needed work

Make your way to the back fields of Jupiter’s Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium complex on Tuesday and watch theMarlins’ No. 2 starting pitcher at work.

Most of the Marlins’ regulars made the trip to Port St. Lucie to play the New York Mets in one of their final Grapefruit League games before the 2021 season. Pablo Lopez stayed behind, throwing in a “B” game against the Houston Astros primarily filled with prospects on the Marlins’ side.

Lopez threw 83 pitches over 5 ⁄3 scoreless innings

2

— although the fourth and fifth innings were rolled over with two outs. He retired 15 of the 20 batters he faced, including Alex Bregman all three times he came to the plate.

“We tried to take advantage of the circumstances,” Lopez said.

The circumstances came into place because of a numbers crunchduring the back half of spring training.

Marlins manager Don Mattingly still has eight pitchers in camp who are built up in their progression to throw anywhere from three to six innings in Sandy Alcantara, Lopez, Elieser Hernandez, Trevor Rogers, Sixto Sanchez, Nick Neidert, Daniel Castano and Gio Gonzalez. He also has nearly a dozen relievers who still need to get work in during these final days.

That, along with every fifth day this spring being an off day, has had Mattingly searching to find enough innings during the final two weeks of spring training.

“Once we put Sixto in the mix,” Mattingly said, “we kind of had to figure out ways to get these guys innings and keep building them.”

Which brings us to the back fields and the supplemental games serving as a workaround to keep all the pitchers ready.

It has resulted in Hernandez pitching an intrasquad game on Saturday and has him lined up to pitch in another “B” game on Wednesday, both off days from Grapefruit League play in the Marlins’ spring schedule.

It led to Castano throwing a four-inning simulated game last week before throwing 3 2⁄3 innings in a 5-3 loss to the Mets on Tuesday in Port St. Lucie, his first Grapefruit League action in 11 days.

It has resulted in Neidert, still in contention for a rotation spot, throwing solely out of the bullpen so far this spring. That will continue as Neidert is scheduled to piggyback off Sanchez during Thursday’s game against theNationals in his fifth and likely final spring outing.

And it led to Lopez, who is slated to start the Marlins’ second game of the regular season against the Rays on April 2, pitching on the back fields Tuesday.

“Sometimes you get that feeling that it gives you like extended spring training vibes with the rolling [innings] and stuff,” Lopez said, “but when you get on the mound, you’ve still gotta make a pitch. Your instincts, your competitiveness takes over. You still want to get outs. Your job is to get outs. It could be more laid back, but you still want to compete.”

Mattingly said the reasoning specifically for Lopez on Tuesday was twofold.

One: Lopez has faced the Mets twice already this spring and could potentially face the NL East opponent as many as six times during the regular season.

“You don’t want to just keep giving them extra looks,” Mattingly said.

Two: Lopez has not faced the Astros this spring and will not face the AL West at all in 2021 unless the teams make the World Series.

“He gets to work against a team that he’s not going to see,” Mattingly said, “and if he’s working on certain things, he can do that in a way knowing that you’re not really going to see these guys this season.”

Lopez’s final spring tuneup will likely also be a back-field contest since he would be lined up to face the Mets on Sunday to wrap up Grapefruit League play. Lopez said his goal for his final spring outing is to continue mixing in his cutter and landing his breaking ball for strikes.

MARLINS-METS NOTABLES

Miguel Rojas hit a

●

two-run home run, his first of spring training. Rojas, Starling Marte and Garrett Cooper each had two hits.

Pitcher Paul Campbell,

● a Rule 5 pick, gave up a pair of solo home runs to Francisco Lindor and J.D. Davis.