Patchwork of players able to produce a surprisingly successful performance
It’s Aug. 5, and the Miami Marlins are leading the National League East.
And that might still be the least surprising thing about how this 2020 season has panned out for them thus far.
The Marlins returned to the diamond Tuesday night in Baltimore after a coronavirus outbreak ran rampant through the team that forced the postponement of seven games as 18 players tested positive for COVID-19. On a night they were originally supposed to play Philadelphia in Miami, the Marlins were without more than half their opening-day roster. They still face the daunting task of rescheduling seven games in a 60-game season already set up as a short-term sprint.
The Marlins’ patchwork 30-man roster included 10 players called up from Jupiter — where top prospects have been working out since the minor leagues are closed this year — a handful of players picked up in trades or signed and the 13 opening-day Marlins who did not test positive. Several of the players had never met in person before Tuesday.
They managed a surprising 4-0 win over the Orioles on Tuesday to move to 3-1 in the standings, a game clear of the 8-4 Atlanta Braves entering Wednesday’s play. And for the night, the events of the past week were shifted to the periphery in favor of baseball.
“That was like opening day for us,” said first baseman Jesus Aguilar, one of the original Marlins, who are calling themselves “The (13 in Spanish). “I was a little nervous in the dugout.
“We’ve been waiting for this moment for, like 15 days. We were happy to be on the field. It was a great feeling for us.”
For the first time in nearly 10 days, there are now real baseball stories and stats and nuggets to toss around. With his solo home run in the eighth inning Aguilar became the third Marlin to homer three times in his first four games with the club, joining Derek Lee and Cliff Floyd.
New faces James Hoyt and Richard Bleier did their part, tossing clean innings in relief of starter Pablo Lopez. Outfielder Monte Harrison made his major-league debut, offering heartfelt thoughts on Twitter after the game about how important that was to him.
“Man…where do I start lol…not how I visioned it starting off lolol but the nerves running through my body I’ve never felt before….the Excited/Anxious/Nervous/ Bubble Guts feeling of stepping on the field…I’m so blessed/Honored to get to step foot on a Big League field,” he tweeted.
For a night, there was some degree of baseball normalcy.
“We held each other accountable throughout that [down] time,” Lopez said. “I can speak for a lot of people when I say that we really helped each other to get through that time. We were constantly communicating, just making sure we were on the same page when it came to, ‘We need to stay ready. When the time comes, we’re going to take the field with the mentality to go out there, leave everything on the field and expect to get a win.’ ”
Things will, more difficult of course, only get from here. Miami played a doubleheader Wednesday in Baltimore, then another Thursday before going to New York to play the Mets. Then it’s on to Buffalo to play two games against the Blue Jays.
“We lost some guys, but we like our guys who are coming up,” manager Don Mattingly said. “We’ve just got to try to hold down the fort and get some guys back, survive this trip and see where we’re at.”
Mattingly will plan that out with just four relievers and two starting pitchers who were in the fold to start the season. While much of his lineup remains intact, merely staying competitive would in the eighth inning at
Trece”
be a serious feat.
Mattingly doesn’t that way.
“We expect to win, honestly,” he said with a chuckle.“The toughest part — you lose 1, 2, 3 in your pitching rotation. We’re going to have to see how that goes because that’s usually what tells the story. Can they keep us in games?”
But Tuesday night will be remembered as the light at the end of a weeklong tunnel. And on a day the team finalized 32 roster moves, the first-place Marlins left the ballpark feeling better than when they arrived.
“This one felt good. We’ve been through a lot,” Mattingly said. quite see it