Marlins put together solid effort to beat Nats Chen return still in the mix
For lefty, rehab assignment on the horizon
MIAMI Dee Gordon’s wide smile on his way back to the dugout after scoring a first-inning run said it all: Wednesday night was going to be an easy one for the Miami Marlins.
In beating the Washington Nationals, 7-0, the Marlins had a little bit of everything, from a dominant start by right-hander Vance Worley to home runs from Christian Yelich and Derek Dietrich to a big night from Gordon to sound defense all over the field.
Paired with their comeback Tuesday, the win gave the second-place Marlins a series win over the Nationals, who still lead the NL East by 12 games.
Worley and righty reliever, against the highestscoring offense in the National League, faced the minimum number of batters in seven shutout innings. Washington put only two runners on against Worley, both via singles. They were erased by double plays off the bat of Bryce Harper.
Worley walked none and struck out three, including Ryan Zimmerman and Anthony Rendon looking in the second inning. The Nats hit only two fly balls, both caught by Yelich in center. Yelich charged in and dove to snag Rendon’s bloop to end the fifth, and ran back and settled on the warning track to corral Harper’s drive to end the seventh.
That finished Worley’s longest outing in more than a year and longest scoreless start in almost three years. He lowered his ERA more than a run, to 5.31 from 6.42.
To make it a bit sweeter, it came against the Nationals, the club with which Worley spent spring training and which cut him right before the start of the regular season.
Righty Odrisamer Despaigne pitched the final two innings. A two-out single in the ninth meant the Nationals sent 28 batters — one more than the minimum — to the plate.
The last out came when Giancarlo Stanton robbed Brian Goodwin of a home run, leaping at the rightfield wall for the catch to preserve the shutout.
Gordon was the catalyst offensively, going 3-for-4 with a triple, an RBI, three runs scored and two stolen bases — giving him 40 on the year. He extended his hitting streak to 13 games, the longest active one in the NL and tied for the longest of his career.
Gordon got the action started when, after a leadoff walk, he teased Nationals right-hander A.J. Cole with twitches and false starts toward second base as Stanton worked the count full. Stanton lined a double to right-center, and Gordon scored easily from first.
Cole (five innings, five runs) settled in from there, but the Marlins reached him for a pair of two-run homers in the fifth: Yelich into the bushes in center, and Dietrich into the upper deck in right.
Yelich added an RBI double against reliever Matt Albers in the sixth.
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MIAMI — Their rotation in tatters, the Miami Marlins have not given up hope that left-hander Wei-Yin Chen will pitch again this year.
Chen said he has been throwing bullpens for more than two weeks — five or six total sessions, including on Wednesday, usually with two days of rest in between. He is up to 35 pitches and mixing in his offspeed offerings more and more.
Manager Don Mattingly said Chen will throw another bullpen Saturday, and by next week live batting practice. Soon, if all goes well, could be a minor league rehabilitation assignment.
“We hope to get him back out there, honestly,” Mattingly said. “We’re still talking a little ways, but I think we’re also getting to the point where we can say he’s progressing to the point where at least it’s on the radar.”
But Chen pitching the majors this year is still just a hope — hardly a full-blown expectation or guarantee — and Chen seemed to hedge more than Mattingly that he will accomplish that.
Chen, through interpreter Louis Chao, said he is no longer experiencing pain, but the situation with his left elbow and the partially torn ulnar collateral ligament inside it is fluid.
“So far I feel fine, but every day you feel different,” Chen said. “We have to see how I feel today, how I feel tomorrow and see how things go.”
Such is the nature of Chen’s injury. Initially placed on the disabled list May 5 with left arm fatigue, the Marlins thought he would miss just one start. It turned into a much more long-term issue, related to the one that cost him two months last season.
Chen’s absence was one in a series of blows to the Marlins’ rotation. Of their Opening Day starting five, Chen has made only five starts, Edinson Volquez is out for the rest of this year and at least most of 2018 because of Tommy John surgery, and an ineffective Tom Koehler is in the minors. Adam Conley also spent time with Triple-A New Orleans.
For Chen, who at $15.5 million is the highest-paid player on the Marlins this year, this prolonged process has been a frustrating one.
“As a player, you don’t feel good when you sit out so long,” Chen said. “I wouldn’t say pressure, but of course when you have a contract, you want to pitch as good as you can. But I try not to think about it too much.”
Chen hesitated in saying anything concrete about the rest of his 2017.
“Personally, I definitely hope [to pitch again],” he said. “But there’s nothing you can say for sure.” setup role, has pitched exclusively out of the bullpen for about a year, and the organization has signaled that his future is in relief.
But with the club’s starting-pitching depth — or lack thereof — being what it is, Mattingly said not to rule out a return to the rotation for Garcia.
“I think it’s something that you at least think about,” Mattingly said. “But I don’t know if anyone has necessarily talked to Jarlin or the organization has really gotten that far.
“A lot of teams in the past have brought guys up to be bullpen guys to get comfortable and then continue to start. I don’t know what the organization has planned for that. I’m sure Michael [Hill, the president of baseball operations,] is thinking about it, with where our starting rotation is right now.”