South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
MARLINS 2, METS 1 Chisholm, Soler solo homers just enough after sharp outing by Luzardo
Skip Schumaker got his first win as a major league manager behind 5 ⅔ shutout innings from Jesús Luzardo and solo home runs by Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Jorge Soler that carried the Miami Marlins over the New York Mets 2-1 on Friday night.
Schumaker, an 11-year-big league veteran, got his first managing job last October when he was hired to replace Don Mattingly. The 43-yearold spent last season as the St. Louis bench coach.
“They thought of some kind of beer shower,” Schumaker said after changing out of his drenched clothes, “protein shake in my ear and whatever else they put in my head.”
Luzardo (1-0) struck out five and allowed two hits, while walking four in his first start this season. The 25-year-old left-hander had a 3.32 ERA with a 30% strikeout rate in 100 ⅓ innings last season.
“The next step is being consistent,” Luzardo said. “I feel towards the end of last year I was able to do that. Just come out and no matter who we’re facing, no matter the situation, I feel it has to be 100% on the attack.”
Soler, in his first game in right field for the Marlins after being the designated hitter in the opener, made a leaping grab against the wall on Pete Alonso’s sharp fly ball to right center in the second. Soler followed with a leadoff shot in the bottom half off David Peterson (0-1) and ran in for a diving catch that robbed Starling Marte for the final out in the eighth. That stranded Daniel Vogelbach, who had pinch hit and hit a bloop double off Dylan Floro.
“It was a great play out in the outfield and I took that feeling back to the plate,” said Soler through an interpreter. “The pitcher was throwing fastballs, and I had to be aggressive. If he threw one down the middle, I was going to go for it.”
Chisholm doubled the lead with an eighth-inning homer off John Curtiss, who made his Mets debut. That proved to be key when Alonso homered in the ninth off A.J. Puk.
Puk then struck out Mark Canha and got Jeff McNeil to ground out for the save, ending a game that took 2 hours, 9 minutes.
New York, which had won Thursday’s opener, loaded the bases in the sixth after Brandon Nimmo walked and took third on a single by Marte, who then stole second, Francisco Lindor walked, and reliever JT Chargois retired Alonso on a lineout to Chisholm in center.
Marte had two of New York’s four hits. Peterson (0-1) gave up eight hits, struck out five and walked one.
Garrett Cooper singled twice and had a triple in the first. Miami went 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position.
Miami’s Nick Fortes was called for a pitch clock violation when he wasn’t ready in time to face Tommy Hunter with two outs in the sixth. Fortes swung and missed at the next pitch, falling into an 0-2 count, then grounded out.
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McNeil made an alert play in the fifth when Cooper’s sharp two-out grounder deflected off Alonso’s glove. McNeil gloved the ball with a dive on the right field grass, popped up and made a one-hop throw to the plate, where Tomás Nido tagged a sliding Jon Berti, who had tried to score from second.