MIAMI ROOKIES PAVE THE WAY
Lefthander Trevor Rogers struck out 10 in 6 innings of work and Jazz Chisholm homered off Jacob deGrom as the Marlins avenged a tough loss to the Mets, 3-0.
NEW YORK
The Marlins entered Saturday’s game against the New York Mets needing a spark.
Two rookies provided just that.
Starting pitcher Trevor Rogers went toe-to-toe with two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom and second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr., hit a a solo home run off deGrom to give the Marlins an early lead in their 3-0 win at Citi Field, the Marlins’ first shutout victory of the year. Miami is now 2-6 on the season. The Mets are 2-3.
TREVOR ROGERS ‘GROW RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR EYES’
Rogers, the Marlins’ No. 7 overall prospect according to MLB Pipeline, tied career highs of six innings pitched and 10 strikeouts while facing a potent Mets lineup.
He struck out Michael Conforto three times (all swinging). He struck out Pete Alonso and Jonathan Villar twice (once looking and once swinging each). He struck out Brandon Nimmo (looking), Francisco Lindor (swinging) and Dominic Smith (swinging) once each.
“We’re seeing him kind of grow up right in front of our eyes,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said.
Rogers, a 6-5 lefty, threw 82 pitches (56 of which were strikes) and worked out of two jams with runners in scoring position with no outs.
In the first, Nimmo led off with a double and Lindor reached on a sacrifice bunt attempt when catcher Chad Wallach couldn’t field the ball. The inning ended with Lindor getting caught stealing second before Conforto and Alonso struck out on consecutive at-bats.
In the sixth, deGrom led off with an infield single and Nimmo worked a four-pitch walk to put runners on first and second. Rogers eliminated the threat by getting Lindor to fly out to center and, once again, striking out Conforto and Lindor.
deGrom was still impressive, too. He held the Marlins to five hits, did not walk a batter and struck out 14 over eight innings while averaging 99 mph with his fourseam fastball.
Miami is now 2-0 alltime when Rogers starts against deGrom at Citi Field.
“That’s definitely a good sign,” Rogers said. “He’s the best in baseball. You always have to bring your best and then some. Just to see that not only me but our whole team can go out and compete with the best just shows you how good we all are.”
CHISHOLM’S BIG HIT
Chisholm’s solo home run in the second inning gave the Marlins all the run support they needed against one of baseball’s best pitchers. He turned on an 0-2 fastball from deGrom that registered at 100.4 mph and sent it 402 feet into the right-field seats.
“There are heavy 100 [mph pitches] and there are lighter [100 mph pitches],” Chisholm said, “and I felt like his was on the lighter side.”
Chisholm, the No. 63 overall prospect in MLB and No. 4 in the Marlins’ system, is the first player to hit a home run off deGrom on an 0-2 count. He’s also the 11th rookie to hit a home run off deGrom and third Marlins rookie to accomplish the feat (Isan Diaz in 2019 and Brian Anderson in 2018).
Chisholm went into the at-bat knowing he was going to take the first pitch, which was a 100.2 mph fastball that hit the top of the zone. Chisholm swung and miss at a second fastball and then connected on the third pitch.
Chisholm’s thoughts as he rounded the bases?
“I was like ‘OK, I just hit a home off deGrom. That’s cool. Now, I’ve got to try and go do it again,’” Chisholm said. “I feel like my abilities allow me to hit a homer off anybody. My hands should be able to get to any ball I can swing at. I just felt like it was another pitcher out there but obviously it was the best pitcher in baseball.”
The Marlins added a pair of insurance runs in the ninth on RBI singles from Jesus Aguilar and Miguel Rojas.
CLOSER COMPETITION?
Yimi Garcia converted the Marlins’ first save of the season with a scoreless ninth inning after Dylan Floro and Richard Bleier threw scoreless seventh and eighth innings.
Anthony Bass had the team’s first two save opportunities of the season but failed to convert them.
Mattingly said any combination of Garcia, Bass, Floro and Bleier could get save opportunities moving forward.
“That’s going to give us a lot of options as we move forward,” Mattingly said.
Floro and Garcia have been the best of the two early this season. Floro, who has primarily pitched the seventh inning, has given up just one unearned run with five strikeouts against just one walk and one hit over 4 1⁄ innings.
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Garcia gave up a solo home run in Miami’s 1-0 Opening Day loss to the Rays but has since thrown four shutout innings.
SUNDAY STARTER?
Mattingly did not announce a starter for Sunday’s series finale with the Mets. He said postgame Saturday that they are still “talking about some options,” and hinted that they could potentially use an opener. While their names weren’t expressly said, John Curtiss and
Paul Campbell would make the most sense in that situation.
Jordan McPherson: 305-376-2129, @J_McPherson1126
other contests. The Rays and Cardinals scored 15 of their 29 runs — 51.7 percent — on a combined nine home runs.
Maybe a change of scenery will help. The Marlins are 1-1 to start a sevengame road trip against the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves. They lost their series opener against the Mets 3-2 on Thursday on a controversial walk-off bases-loaded hit-by-pitch and then shut out the Mets 3-0 on Saturday. During the pandemic-shortened season, the Marlins went 20-14 in the 34 games played away from their home ballpark.
“One of the things you talk about in this league is, ‘Turn the page,’ ” Mattingly said. “We’re six games in, hasn’t gone very well. That can’t define us.”
But what went wrong on
Miami’s end offensively during that first homestand?
According to Statcast, their long-distanced balls in play simply just didn’t leave the ballpark. The Marlins put 14 balls in play that traveled at least a projected 350 feet in their first six games of the season.
The results? Two home runs, two doubles, one triple, one sacrifice fly, eight fly outs.
Statcast projects the Marlins should have a collective .516 batting average on these 14 balls in play, based on exit velocity and launch angle among other factors. The actual batting average? .385. Of the 27 teams with at least 10 balls in play that have gone at least 350 feet, just seven have a worse differential.
“You’ve got to hit it clean,” Mattingly said, “and it’s got to be to the right area of the ballpark.”
The Marlins far too often did not hit it to the right area of the ballpark. All but two of these balls put into play were hit between left-center and right-center field. The wall in left-center is 382 feet from home plate, 407 at center field and 392 in right-center.
Meanwhile, none went to right field and just two were hit to the power alley in left field — Garrett Cooper’s 364-foot home run and a Jesus Aguilar fly ball in the ninth inning on Opening Day that went 353 feet but died at the warning track.
“I thought I had a chance because I hit it in the corner,” Aguilar said of his near home run, “but I didn’t get it good. ...
Maybe if we are in a different park, there might have been a different result, but that’s the game.”
The Marlins had a little more luck in their first two games at Citi Field. Jazz Chisholm hit a 402-foot home run off Jacob deGrom to open scoring Saturday and Adam Duvall hit a 377-foot double to left-center in the eighth.
St. Louis and Tampa, meanwhile, excelled at hitting deep drives down the left- and right-field lines. Seven of their nine home runs went to either left or right field.
“We have to make the adjustments that we have to make offensively,” Mattingly said, “but there have been balls that have been hit good.”
Missed home run opportunities aside, the Marlins overall have struggled in key situations despite the fact that they are getting steady contact.
Through Saturday’s early games, the Marlins
ranked 24th in batting average with runners on base (.208) and 22nd with runners in scoring position (.197). They have left 43 runners on base in six games.
“The at-bats are fine. Our at-bats are good. We were seeing good pitches,” shortstop Miguel Rojas said. “We are fighting in our at-bats, and we’re putting a lot of runners on base. That’s what is important — getting guys on base. Now is what’s the next step, following the plan, like make sure that you’re doing your job instead of trying to hit a homer, or something like that. That’s exactly what I’m seeing. I can’t really talk for the rest of the guys, but what I’m seeing is we are trying to do too much, especially in that situation where we get runners in scoring position.”
Jordan McPherson: 305-376-2129, @J_McPherson1126