Rookies Thompson, Diaz power Fish to series win
It seemed only fitting, expected even, that Jazz Chisholm Jr. would start the action for the Marlins on Saturday.
The club was celebrating Bahamian Heritage Night at loanDepot park. Chisholm, the Marlins’ high-energy rookie from Nassau who is quickly making a name for himself around Major League Baseball, worked his way around the basepaths in the first inning against the Atlanta
Braves to give the Marlins a lead they wouldn’t relinquish in their 4-2 victory as hundreds of the 8,158 inside the ballpark waved Bahamian flags while wearing his No. 2 jersey.
What may not have been expected by many in the ballpark in this late-afternoon contest: The performance of Marlins starting pitcher Zach Thompson.
The 27-year-old righthander making his second career MLB start after seven-plus years in the minors kept a potent Braves lineup at bay over five scoreless innings before handing the ball to the bullpen, which held the Braves to two runs over the final four innings.
The Marlins (29-35) have now won four of the first five games of this homestand heading into Sunday’s series finale with the Braves (29-33). Miami has won five of its first six games against Atlanta this year following a road trip in which they lost eight of nine. Also, with back-to-back wins on Friday and Saturday, the Marlins claimed their first home series against the Braves since taking three of four from Sept. 28-Oct. 1, 2017.
Thompson, who earned his first career MLB win in his second career MLB start, held the Braves to three hits and did not walk a batter while striking out six and, perhaps most notably, got Ronald Acuna Jr. to go 0 for 3 at the plate, including a swinging strikeout to end the fifth.
“For me to be able to shut out the Braves is amazing,” Thompson said. “They’re a really good lineup, and I know what this game meant to us.”
He also worked himself out of a pair of jams. There was the second, when the Braves had runners on second and third with one out. Thompson struck out William Contreras on three pitches and got Ender Inciarte to pop out to end the inning unscathed.
And then there was the third, when a single and fielding error put runners on first and third for Atlanta with one out.
Thompson got out of it on a double play, with Ozzie Albies flying out to Starling Marte in center field and pitcher Max Fried being thrown out trying to score on the play. Isan Diaz also came up big defensively in the inning, snagging an Acuna line drive at third base for the first out of the frame.
The performance on Saturday followed up Thompson’s MLB debut in which he held the Boston Red Sox to two runs on four hits over three innings on Monday.
“It seems like he’s gaining a little confidence as we’re going,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said, “so we’ll see where it goes.”
And Thompson received the run support he needed.
It started with Chisholm’s trip around the bases in the first inning. The rookie middle infielder drew a leadoff walk against Braves’ starter Fried, advanced to second on a Marte groundout, reached third on a wild pitch and scored on a shallow Jesus Aguilar sacrifice fly by sliding head-first under Contreras’ tag.
The Marlins scored runs on solo home runs from Adam Duvall in the fourth and Lewin Diaz in the fifth off Fried.
Duvall’s home run, a 437-foot shot into AutoNation Alley in leftcenter field, was his 12th of the year, tying him with Aguilar for the team lead.
Diaz’s home run, which traveled a projected 410 feet to right center, was the first of his MLB career. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Diaz is the eighth Marlins player to record his first career home run as a pinch hitter and the first since Bryan Petersen in 2011. The 24-year-old Diaz, ranked as the Marlins’ No. 5 overall prospect according to MLB Pipeline, smiled the entire time he was rounding the bases.
The Marlins added an insurance run on an Aguilar RBI single in the eighth that was just out of Freddie Freeman’s reach and dropped into shallow right field to score Marte, who singled and stole second before the hit.
Aguilar’s 48 RBI on the season leads the National League, and is tied for second in all of MLB as of Saturday.
Anthony Bender (1 2⁄ 3 innings), Richard Bleier ( 1⁄ inning), Anthony Bass 3 (one inning), and Dylan Floro closed things out on the mound. Bass gave up a two-run home run to Freeman with one out in the eighth. Bass quickly got the final two outs on an Albies flyout to center field and an Austin Riley swinging strikeout. Floro threw a scoreless ninth for his second save of the season.