Even after rough series against Mets, Marlins’ playoff chances are still alive
It didn’t take long for Skip Schumaker to sum up how the Miami Marlins fared in their series against the New York Mets.
Miami dropped two of three games to New York — falling 2-1 Monday and 8-3 Wednesday while winning 4-3 in walk-off fashion Tuesday — to cap a stretch of 16 games in 16 days in the midst of a push for a playoff spot.
“We didn’t play really well this series,” Schumaker said postgame Wednesday. “That’s just the bottom line. Bad timing.”
The Marlins’ saving grace: The Marlins held their own over the earlier portion of this extended stretch of playing time without a day off and is still firmly in the National League wild-card race.
Overall, Miami went 9-7 in this 16-game stretch, which included series wins over three playoff teams — sweeping the Atlanta
Braves and taking two of three games against both the Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies — while also dropping series against the Mets and Milwaukee Brewers.
The Marlins entered Thursday’s off day — one of two left for Miami in the regular season — with a 79-74 record, a half-game behind the Chicago Cubs for the NL’s third wild-card spot with nine games left on the schedule.
FanGraphs on Thursday has the Marlins with a 45.9 percent chance of making the playoffs.
ALCANTARA STARTS REHAB ASSIGNMENT
Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara was scheduled to start a rehab assignment with the Triple A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp on Thursday.
Alcantara has been sidelined since his Sept. 3 start against the Washington Nationals with a right UCL sprain. He began playing catch Sept. 13 and threw a pair of bullpens in Miami over the past week
CUETO TO THE BULLPEN
Johnny Cueto’s role is changing once again.
For the immediate future, the veteran righthanded pitcher will be throwing out of the bullpen.
Schumaker used Cueto for mop-up duty in Wednesday’s loss to the Mets. Cueto pitched the final two innings, entering with the Marlins down 6-2 and giving up a pair of home runs to Brett Baty and Brandon Nimmo.
“Once we were down a ways,” Schumaker said, “that’s when we went to Johnny.”
Cueto’s first season with the Marlins has been one mostly to forget. He pitched just one inning in the first half before being sidelined by injury. He made two solid outings upon his return, giving up one run over nine innings, but has struggled since (a 6.81 ERA in 37 innings over his past eight outings — seven starts and his two-inning relief stint Wednesday).
Schumaker added Cueto will pitch out of the bullpen “for the next couple games and then we’ll see where he’s at.”
With that, the Marlins will use an opener when they start a three-game series against the Brewers on Friday.
BURGER UPDATE
Marlins third baseman Jake Burger left Wednesday’s game against the Mets with right quad tightness. He experienced the injury while trying to field a throw from right fielder Jesus Sanchez on a play that ultimately resulted in a pair of throwing errors and set up two Mets runs.
“The initial lunge for the ball, before it got by me, is when I felt it,” Burger said. “It just tightened up. It sucks, but I’ll do everything I can to be good on Friday.”
Burger has played in all 45 of the Marlins’ games since he was acquired at the Aug. 1 trade deadline from the Chicago White Sox.
JUPITER HAMMERHEADS WIN CHAMPIONSHIP
While the Marlins continue to push for a playoff berth at the MLB level, one of their minor-league affiliates has already won a championship.
The Jupiter Hammerheads, Miami’s Single A affiliate, won the its first Florida State League championship with a 7-4 win over the Clearwater Threshers (the Philadelphia Phillies’ affiliate) on Wednesday in a winnertake-all Game 3. Jupiter also won Game 1 of the series 8-7 on Sunday before dropping the middle game 3-1 on Tuesday.
Seven of the Marlins’ top 30 prospects according to MLB Pipeline play for Jupiter: Pitchers Noble Meyer, Thomas White, Jacob Miller and Juan De La Cruz; outfielder Kemp Alderman; and infielders Brock Vradenburg and Ian Lewis.
Four of those seven players were Marlins selections in the 2023 MLB Draft: first-round pick Meyer (Marlins No. 1 prospect, MLB No. 55), competitive balance pick White (Marlins No. 2), second-round pick Alderman (Marlins No. 9) and third-round pick Vradenburg (Marlins No. 10).
From the group, Alderman was one of Jupiter’s main standouts at the plate, hitting .313 (5 for 16) with a .478 on-base percentage and .563 slugging mark. He hit two doubles
x-Atlanta Philadelphia Miami
New York Washington
Milwaukee Chicago Cincinnati Pittsburgh St. Louis
West
97 83 79 71 68
W
87 79 79 71 67
W
55 69 74 81 85
L
66 73 75 81 86
L
.638 .546 .516 .467 .444
Pct
.569 .520 .513 .467 .438
Pct
— 14 18 ⁄ 26 291⁄2
— —
8 111⁄2
GB WCGB
— 71⁄2 81⁄2 151⁄2 20
— — 1 8 12
GB WCGB
x-Los Angeles 93 58 .616 — Arizona 81 72 .529 13
S.F. 76 76 .500 171⁄2
San Diego 75 78 .490 19 Colorado 56 96 .368 371⁄2
WCGB denotes wild card games back; x-clinched division; z-clinched playoff berth
— — 3 41⁄2 23
FRIDAY
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Toronto (Bassitt 14-8) at Tampa Bay (Glasnow 9-6), 6:40
Arizona (Pfaadt 2-8) at N.Y. Yankees (TBD), 7:05
Baltimore (Kremer 12-5) at Cleveland (Bieber 5-6), 7:10
Chicago White Sox (Toussaint 4-7) at Boston (Sale 6-4), 7:10
Seattle (Miller 8-5) at Texas (Dunning 10-6), 8:05
Kansas City (Ragans 6-4) at Houston (Valdez 12-10), 8:10
L.A. Angels (Anderson 6-6) at Minnesota (López 10-8), 8:10
Detroit (Gipson-Long 1-0) at Oakland (Waldichuk 3-8), 9:40
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Milwaukee (Burnes 9-8) at Miami (TBD), 6:40
Colorado (Davis 0-2) at Chicago Cubs (Taillon 7-10), 2:20
Pittsburgh (Ortiz 4-5) at Cincinnati
(Abbott 8-5), 6:40
Arizona (Pfaadt 2-8) at N.Y. Yankees (TBD), 7:05
Atlanta (Morton 14-12) at Washington (Corbin 10-13), 7:05
N.Y. Mets (Megill 8-8) at Philadelphia (Walker 15-5), 7:05
St. Louis (Hudson 6-2) at San Diego (Waldron 1-3), 9:40
and one triple and led the Hammerheads with six walks and five runs scored. He also had three RBI.
On the mound, Meyer threw 5 2⁄3 shutout innings
NY Mets AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Nimmo cf 4 3 3 1 1 0 .272 Mauricio 2b 3 2 1 0 2 0 .300 Alonso 1b 4 0 1 2 0 2 .222 Lindor ss 5 0 1 1 0 0 .250 McNeil rf 4 0 0 0 1 0 .267 R.Ortega lf 4 0 0 0 0 1 .215 Vientos dh 4 2 2 2 0 1 .226 Baty 3b 4 1 1 1 0 2 .212 Narvaez c 4 0 1 0 0 1 .190
Totals 36 8 10 7 4 7
Miami AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Soler dh 4 0 2 0 1 2 .244 Chisholm Jr. cf 4 0 1 0 0 1 .250 Burger 3b 1 0 0 0 0 0 .308 Edwards 2b 3 0 0 0 0 1 .279 Bell 1b 4 2 2 1 0 0 .260 B.De La Cruz lf 4 1 2 0 0 0 .256 J.Sanchez rf 3 0 0 0 0 1 .258 Gurriel ph 1 0 1 1 0 0 .254 Wendle ss 0 0 0 0 0 0 .216 Hampson rf 2 0 0 1 1 1 .286 Berti 3b 3 0 2 0 1 0 .281 Stallings c 4 0 0 0 0 1 .196
Totals 33 3 10 3 3 7 NY Mets 012 001 211 — 8 10 0 Miami 000 101 010 — 3 10 2
E—Burger (9), J.Sanchez (3). LOB—NY Mets 6, Miami 7. 2B—Bell (26), Narvaez (5), Nimmo (28). HR—Bell (21), off Senga, Baty (8), off Cueto, Nimmo (24), off
Cueto, Vientos 2 (7), off E.Perez , G.Soriano. RBI—Alonso 2 (114), Baty (30), Bell (68), Gurriel (27), Hampson (23), Lindor (88), Nimmo (63), Vientos 2 (19). SB—Berti (15). SF—Alonso, Hampson.
GIDP—Stallings. DP—NY Mets 2 (McNeil, Narvaez), (Lindor, Mauricio, Alonso).
Runners left in scoring position—NY Mets 4 (McNeil 2, Nimmo, R.Ortega); Miami 3 (Hampson, Stallings 2).
NY Mets IP H RERBBSO NP ERA Senga W, 6 7 2 2 2 3100 2.96 12-7
Dr.Smith 1 0 0 0 1 1 18 4.39 B.Raley 2 1 1 0 2 21 2.94 Bickford 1 0 0 0 0 11 5.24 Gott 1 0 0 0 0 1 14 4.67
Miami IP H RERBBSO NP ERA E.Perez L, 5-6 3 3 3 2 3 2 69 3.15 Okert 1 1 0 0 0 2 17 4.07 Chargois 1 0 0 0 0 1 9 3.46 G.Soriano 11⁄3 3 3 3 1 2 34 3.54 D.Robertson 0 0 0 0 0 7 6.23 Cueto 2 3 2 2 0 0 25 6.32
Inherited runners-scored—D.Robertson 2-1, Bickford 2-1. WP—Senga. T—3:04. A—12,045 (37,000).
over his two starts, giving up just one hit and striking out five.