Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Marlins in park
Conley returns from minors, pitches well, but bullpen gives up 2 HRs
Phillies run over Miami 5-2.
MIAMI — Adam Conley’s minor league interlude ended because of team need, not individual merit, but now that he’s back in the bigs he seems determined to make good on the latter.
The lanky left-hander rejoined the Miami Marlins on Tuesday and pitched well in their 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies. He tossed six innings and allowed two runs, a step toward re-cementing his spot in the major leagues and offering, for at least this turn, a bit of added stability to a rotation that badly needs it.
The Marlins lost it in the eighth when Maikel Franco homered to left-center against right-hander Dustin McGowan. Nick Williams’ two-run shot against Jarlin Garcia in the ninth bolstered that lead.
On Conley’s first day with the Marlins since May 8, he arrived about four hours before first pitch, with his hair grown long and a big bag of equipment in tow, everything he needed in his return from Triple-A New Orleans. He found his new locker, located across the room from his old spot after regular roster rejiggering while he was gone, and welcomed plenty of hugs and handshakes before settling into his pre-start routine.
Conley scattered eight hits and two walks while striking out three in his six innings, matching his longest outing of the year. The Phillies scored when Cameron Perkins singled hard to right in the second and when Perkins singled on a bunt to first
(Conley) tossed six innings and allowed two runs, a step toward recementing his spot in the major leagues ...
in the fourth.
A pair of double plays helped Conley avoid more significant trouble. One of them came in the second inning, when catcher J.T. Realmuto tagged a runner at home to end a rundown and fired to second to get another.
Aggressive in the strike zone and working fast, Conley flashed hints of “the fire we saw from Adam last year,” as manager Don Mattingly described it.
Conley threw 92 pitches, 62 strikes.
That marked a significant improvement over the version of Conley the Marlins saw for most of the first month-plus of the season, when he posted a 7.53 ERA and 1.57 WHIP, leaving the club little choice but to demote him.
Conley didn’t pitch particularly well with New Orleans (5.49 ERA, 1.51 WHIP), but Edinson Volquez’s left knee tendinitis left the Marlins need- ing another starter. Now, a second chance. “It’s like a new start for him,” Mattingly said Tuesday afternoon. “We have to look at it like that. He has to look at it like that. Erase the past and see where we’re at right now.”
Ichiro Suzuki’s pinchhit single to left in the eighth was the 3,056th hit of his career, breaking a tie with Rickey Henderson for 23rd place on baseball’s all-time hits list.
The Marlins took leads on Giancarlo Stanton’s 442-foot solo home run to left-center in the first inning and JT Riddle’s almost accidental manufactured run in the third. After a dribbler toward first, Riddle ended up on third when Phillies starter Vince Velasquez (six innings, two runs) fired it down the right-field line. Riddle then scored on a passed ball.
Both times, Conley allowed the Phillies to tie it in the next half-inning.