Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
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Rookie Lopez pitches well but Marlins lose.
MIAMI – Pablo López was one pitch away from escaping unharmed.
With the Marlins and Braves scoreless in the sixth inning, the 22-year-old rookie had Tyler Flowers down 0-2 with two outs. After missing on a pair of curveballs, his 97th pitch of the afternoon proved costly.
The Braves catcher connected on a 92 MPH fastball to left, driving in Nick Markakis from second to give Atlanta all the offense it would need. The Braves tacked on three more in the eighth for good measure to blank the Marlins, 4-0. With the victory, the Braves earned a split in the four-game set.
“Our pitching was good,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “They kept us there. We just weren’t able to get anything going offensively today.”
The Marlins (53-79) mustered just two hits — one courtesy of López — and four base-runners on the day. It continued a recurring trend of Miami’s bats going cold with the rookie on the mound. In his past six starts, he’s only received six runs of support.
“We all try our best every day,” said López, who’s allowed two runs or less in four of his past five starts. “We go out there on the field and give our everything every single day. It’s baseball — I try to control the things I can control.”
“[Today] I was mixing off-speeds more
earlier in the game. I tried to execute them 0-0 — even behind in the count, try to get back into the count and that worked very well. [Catcher] Bryan Holaday did a great job calling the pitches and we stayed with the plan.”
Kevin Gausman picked up the victory for Atlanta (73-57), tossing five shutout innings. Since being acquired from Baltimore prior to the trade deadline, Gausman is 4-1 with a 1.69 ERA in five starts. Jesse Biddle, Dan Winkler, Brad Brach and A.J. Minter combined to finish off the two-hitter.
Sunday marked the fourth consecutive game in the series that one team struggled to produce any offense. After Atlanta won, 5-0, on Thursday, the Marlins pulled off a 1-0 victory the following night. Miami nearly recorded a second consecutive shutout on Saturday, but the Braves scored one in the ninth to lose, 3-1.
After taking a 1-0 lead in Sunday’s matinee, Atlanta capitalized on an unforced error from the Marlins in the eighth. With runners on second and third, first baseman Derek Dietrich fielded a grounder and threw the ball wide of catcher Bryan Holaday, leading to a pair of Braves to cross home plate.
“It’s not an easy play,” Mattingly said. “[Dietrich] has to go to his left and he’s got to make a throw back across his body. It’s not like a bread-and-butter type play. I think he’s capable of making it, but it’s not an easy play.”
Atlanta tacked on one more in the frame off a sacrifice fly from Ender Inciarte.
It was final meeting between the teams this season with the Braves finishing with a 14-5 record versus the Marlins. Miami will now head to Boston for a two-game set at Fenway Park, beginning Tuesday.