Miami Marlins: Post Series Grades vs Boston

The Miami Marlins dropped both contests of their short series with the Boston Red Sox. We’re going to take a closer look at the 21 Miami Marlins players who appeared.

I used the Wins Probability Added metric (WPA) to help ascertain which players performed in the higher leverage situations. In other words, if the Miami Marlins are winning, 6-0, a plate appearance doesn’t count as much. Conversely, an at bat with two on and two out in the bottom of the 13th has a very high leverage.

There’s something else you need to understand about WPA. Every game has a collective WPA of zero. The winning team will finish with a total of .50, and the losing team will have -.50. As such, it’s not a great predictor of future performance. What it can tell you is which players performed best when the chips were down.

Most of Miami’s bullpen and every position player got into at least one game. Since it was only two games, some starting pitchers currently on the roster don’t appear on this list. Famously, Brian Ellington and Braxton Lee, both recently sent down, didn’t appear in either game.

For comparison’s sake, I’ll take a moment here to outline Boston’s best performers.

Hanley Ramirez .467

Ramirez was the best performer overall in the series. He went two-for-five with a stolen base in the opener. His efforts included a two-run shot which proved to be the eventual game-winner. He also collected multiple hits and RBI in the second game, going two-for-six. Most notably, he again hit the eventual game-winning hit, a 13th inning two-RBI double.

Andrew Benintendi .271

Benintendi reached base twice in the opener, with a walk and a single. In the second game, he doubled his output, with two walks and two hits. He stole a base and knocked in Eduardo Nunez in the 11th inning with the apparent series clincher. Of course, Miami would come back in the bottom of that frame, but more on that later.

Heath Hembree .243

Hembree struck out four Marlins in three innings while appearing in both games. He allowed one hit in his inning of work on Monday and again allowed just one hit in his two frames on Tuesday.

Brian Johnson .101

Johnson collected the series opening win, going six strong innings and surrendering just one earned run, Brian Anderson’s first career tater. Johnson allowed six hits and two walks, striking out five and getting 49-of-82 pitches over the plate.

Christian Vazquez .037

All of Vazquez’ positive impact was in the first game, when he was two-for-four with a double and two RBI. Although he also had a hit in Tuesday’s contest, he was 1-for-5 with a -.219 WPA.