Miami Marlins Top Baltimore Orioles to Claim Three-Game Series

The Miami Marlins claimed their second series in a row by defeating the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday afternoon.

The Miami Marlins turned the trick on an 85 degree afternoon, with 23,948 in attendance at Camden Yards. The game lasted just 2:41, and wrapped up prior to 7PM EST.

Pitching

Former Oriole Wei-Yin Chen faced Alex Cobb from the hill. Neither had what would be considered a great game, as Chen earned a 45 GameScore and Cobb finished with a mark of 43.

Despite this, Chen (2-3, 5.91) did earn a “quality start,” allowing three earned runs in six innings. He struck out two and allowed eight hits, including one home run to Johnathan Schoop.

Cobb (2-9, 7.14) lasted seven frames in all, allowing seven hits. That includes two https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/machama01.shtmlhome runs to J.T. Realmuto. He gave up a total of two walks and five earned runs, striking out six Marlins.

Tayron Guerrero came into the contest to pitch the seventh inning for the Miami Marlins, and struck out Austin Wynns and Craig Gentry. Two-thirds of the way through what he probably thought was an easy inning, he allowed consecutive singles to Adam Jones, Manny Machado, and Danny Valencia. Valencia knocked in Jones with his single.

Brad Ziegler was called in to settle the Orioles down, and got Trey Mancini to ground out to end the inning. Ziegler stayed in for another inning, keeping the ball down enough for three groundouts. He didn’t allow a fly ball, earning a strikeout.

Normal closer Kyle Barraclough had played the last two games, and in four of the Marlins’ last five. Manager Don Mattingly instead called on Drew Steckenrider to close things out.

Steckenrider allowed a 10-pitch walk to open things up in the ninth, to Corban Joseph. One pitch later, Jones grounded into an unconventional 4-3 double play, from Starlin Castro to Justin Bour. Machado flew out to Lewis Brinson to end the game a second later. Read about likely Castro destinations here.

Game Story

The Miami Marlins jumped on Cobb early. Derek Dietrich doubled on the first pitch of the game, then Realmuto singled him home with a hit into left field.

In the second inning, JB Shuck drove home J.T. Riddle with a groundout.

Miami doubled their lead in the third inning on Realmuto’s eighth home run of the season, a two-run shot.

The Orioles got on the board against Chen in the bottom of the third on a Machado two-run single. Wynns and Jones crossed the plate on the play to get within a pair of runs.

In the sixth, Realmuto led off with his second home run of the game, his ninth of the season, and his 47th overall. It was his second multi-home run game of the year, and his fourth overall to give the Miami Marlins a 5-2 lead.

Realmuto is absolutely nowhere in the NL All-Star voting aside from on the ballot. He is not in the top five National League catchers, although he leads the entire major league in nearly every offensive and defensive category. This includes the cumulative statistics that he gave every other major league catcher a three-week head start on. He’s slashing .309/.369/.546 in 50 games this season. Still, he’s six plate appearances short of qualifying for the NL leaderboard. But I digress.

In the bottom of the sixth, Schoop connected on his seventh round-tripper of the campaign.

Against Guerrero in the seventh inning, Valencia got the Orioles within a run with a two-out RBI-single, but Ziegler was brought in to put out the fire.

Hitting

Aside from Realmuto’s three-hit day, Riddle and Dietrich also collected multiple hits. Dietrich is up to .282 for the season, and has hit .354 since May 20th with a 1.005 OPS.

Riddle’s two-for-three day raises his average to .234. His fourth inning flyout was about 400 feet into center field.

Defense

With Martin Prado and Miguel Rojas both currently sidelined, it fell on natural shortstop Yadiel Rivera to step in at third base. He was clearly up to the task.

Transactions

Infielder Mason Davis was waived from the double-A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp. In five seasons of minor league ball, he slashed .260/.320/.374 in 281 games as part of the Miami Marlins organization.

The Greensboro Grasshoppers placed Lazaro Alonso on the seven day DL.

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C Nick Fortes made his professional debut with the Batavia Muckdogs in NYPL action late in the afternoon. LHP Logan Boyd and OF Josh Hart signed minor league deals. A host of players were promoted from the GCL Marlins to play at the higher level. C Pablo Garcia, RF Jerar Encarnacion, LHP Dakota Bennett, RF Albert Guaimaro, 2B Gerardo Nunez, LHP Karl Craigie, LHP Dylan Cyphert, RHP Luis Monica, C Igor Baez, and C J.D. Osborne were all promoted from GCL to the Muckdogs.

C Arquimedes Cumana was moved from the DSL Marlins active roster to their 60-day DL.

Tomorrow

In tomorrow’s contest in Baltimore, Trevor Richards (1-3, 4.41) will take the hill opposite Dylan Bundy (4-7, 3.66). The game starts at 1:05PM, and the Miami Marlins are looking for the rare sweep.

Next: Where is Starlin Castro going?

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