Pitching lifts Marlins past bad start to 3 straight series wins

MIAMI — The Marlins seem to have forgotten their miserable start to the season that included a 5-17 opening, a 19-run loss in Philadelphia and a fivegame losing streak that started in Milwaukee. Instead, the club has picked it up lately, winning six of its past eight games and its last three series.

The Marlins won both series on their most recent homestand against the Rockies and the Phillies, sandwiching a four-game win streak between a pair of losses.

The win streak was the longest of the season for Miami and was the longest active one in the major leagues before Wednesday’s 6-0 loss to Philadelphia.

“We’re starting to be able to find ways to win instead of find ways to lose,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “It’s been a good little stretch for us. Now we just need to get consistent and keep rolling.”

So what has led to the recent swing in fortune?

Pitching, mostly. And little bit of luck.

Since April 24, Marlins starters have a 1.75 ERA, have struck out 7.96 batters a per nine innings and have barely allowed a baserunner per inning (1.079 WHIP).

Trevor Richards set a career-high with 10 strikeouts in an outing in Los Angeles. Caleb Smith allowed just two hits in a career-high seven innings Sunday. WeiYin Chen and Dan Straily each made long-awaited returns to the rotation.

But no pitcher has impressed quite like lefthander Jarlin Garcia.

Garcia is a 25-year-old Dominican used exclusively out of the bullpen last season. He appeared in 68 games and posted a 4.73 ERA during his rookie season. This year, he began the month in the bullpen but was shifted to the rotation after just two relief appearances.

Garcia’s first start was one to remember, a six-inning no-hit bid on April 11 against the Mets. In his next start against the Yankees, didn’t allow a hit through the first 41⁄3 innings.

In total, Garcia has a sparkling 1.09 ERA to go with a minuscule 0.848 WHIP. But underlying numbers suggest Garcia’s dominance is a mirage.

On balls in play, opponents are batting just .151 against Garcia, an abnormally low figure that means he has benefited from both luck and the Miami defense behind him. Only Oakland’s Sean Manaea (.148) has a lower BABIP than Garcia. The league average usually hovers around .300.

Some pitchers make careers around coaxing weak contact and turning those at-bats into outs. But Garcia hasn’t been generating weak contact. According to FanGraphs, Garcia has allowed hard contact on 36.4 percent of balls in play, ranking 14th in the National League. (Marlins righthander Jose Ureña leads the league by allowing hard contact on 43.1 percent of balls in play.)

Garcia could get away with allowing hard contact and still be successful if he held high strikeout and low walk rates to limit the damage. But his 18.6 percent strikeout rate and 10.5 percent walk rate are both worse than the league average 22.7 strikeout rate and 8.9 percent walk rate.

While Garcia individually could be due some regression, the Marlins staff as a whole might be hit with it soon.

Over the last eight games, opposing hitters are just 9-for-53 (.170) with runners in scoring position against the Marlins, squandering prime chances to dent Miami’s staff for runs.