FanSided

Miami Marlins 3, Red Sox 7

By Kevin Kraczkowski |
MIAMI, FL - MARCH 31: Brian Anderson
MIAMI, FL - MARCH 31: Brian Anderson

There were 11,113 on hand to witness the Boston Red Sox put down the Miami Marlins by a 7-3 final on Monday night in Marlins Park.

Trevor Richards made his major league debut, and for a little while there things were looking pretty good. The new Miami Marlins starter retired eight of the first nine hitters he faced, four of them on strikeouts.

Richards ended up getting into a bit of a jam as things wore on. He lasted 4 1/3 innings and allowed five earned runs on eight hits. He also struck out five batters, and placed 55-of-93 balls over the plate.

https://twitter.com/Marlins/status/980952854662995969

Brian Anderson opened the scoring in the bottom of the second inning with his first career major league home run.

Richards started to run into a little trouble in the fourth inning, and it all started with two outs.

Xander Bogaerts started things out with an infield single down the left foul line. As it slowly trickled 80 feet toward third base, no fewer than three Marlins stood looking at and hoping it would go foul. It did not.

With Bogaerts at first base, Eduardo Nunez knocked him in with a double to left field.

After that, Jackie Bradley Jr. drew a walk to put men on first and second, then Christian Vazquez hit a two-RBI double. It gave the Sox a 3-1 lead that they would not relinquish.

But the Sox weren’t done. After a one-out Andrew Benintendi single in the fifth, Hanley Ramirez smacked a line-drive homer to left field. That made it 5-1, including the eventual game-winner.

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In the seventh, Mookie Betts added a solo homer to make it 6-1. Miami finally mustered up another run in the eighth, on a Cameron Maybin single in the eighth.

Boston turned around and reestablished their comfy five-run lead in the ninth inning, on a Rafael Devers RBI-double. Starlin Castro got that one back in the ninth, his 500th career RBI. But it was just for pride at that point, as Brian Anderson shortly thereafter popped out to end the game.

A few things

  • Hanley Ramirez looked a lot like the guy we were used to for all those years. He was two-for-five with two runs, two RBI, and a stolen base.
  • Starlin Castro is now 8-for-22 this season, a .364 average. He’s still sitting on 99 career home runs. He collected three hits in the game, scoring and knocking one in.
  • Cameron Maybin and Lewis Brinson also finished the game with multiple hits.
  • Although it’s not shown on the final stat line, Trevor Richards was very solid in his first time through the order. He’s going to need to continue to develop his secondary pitches in order to make it through a second (and third) time.
  • Junichi Tazawa continued his fine start for this season, striking one out in 1 2/3 perfect innings.

Heroes (and Zeroes)

Using the Wins Probability Added (WPA) metric, we can see who produced in the higher leverage situations. Both the good (the heroes) and the bad (the zeros) are represented here. When added together, the winning team (Boston in this case) will have a 50% WPA. Conversely, the losing team (Miami) will have a -50% WPA.

Heroes

Christian Vazquez +25.6%

Vazquez, batting eighth, was the first player to collect a hit off of Trevor Richards, with one out in the third inning. With two out in the fourth, he hit a two-out, two-RBI double off to score Eduardo Nunez and Jackie Bradley Jr. Later, he grounded out to end the sixth and lined out to end the eighth.

Eduardo Nunez +12.2%

Nunez batted sixth for the Red Sox. He opened his night by grounding out, 3-1 to end the second inning. In the fourth, he knocked in the first Boston run of the night with a double to left field. He grounded out to open the sixth and flew out with a runner on first for the first out of the eighth.

Brian Anderson +12.1%

Anderson’s second-inning solo shot was most of his positive impact in the game, with a 10.8% positive weight to the event. Batting fourth, he grounded into a bases-loaded fielders choice in the third. Later, he drew a walk with no outs and a man on first in the sixth, and drew first by way of HBP in the eighth. He flew out to end the game in the ninth inning.

Zeroes

Bryan Holaday -13.3%

Holaday batted eighth for the Marlins. He was 0-for-2 and left two men on base.

Miguel Rojas -14.7%

Miggy Ro batted seventh, and struck out once in four at bats. More notably, he stranded six runners, and went 0-for-4. It was the first time this season that he did not finish with a hit. The game also broke his current 10-game hitting streak going back to last season.

Trevor Richards -33.0%

Richards travails were already noted, above. He took the loss in his debut, having allowed five earned runs on eight hits and a walk.

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