Miami Marlins History: Derek Dietrich versus Jonathan Papelbon

In today’s Plate Appearance of the Day series, we focus on player of the day Derek Dietrich.

Today’s Season: 2016

Seasonal Game: 4, April 10th, 2016 – Miami Marlins visit Washington Nationals.

Plate appearance: 71-of-71, Jonathan Papelbon pitches to Derek Dietrich at approximately 4:27PM.

Where They Were

With the season just in it’s formative stages, the Miami Marlins were already below .500, at 1-2. They were coming off their first win of the year, a 6-4 win over these same Nationals (2-1). The record put them by themselves in third in the NL East, one game behind Washington.

The Marlins were just off a 71-91 campaign in 2015, 19 games out of first behind the New York Mets. The Nats had also missed the playoffs, finishing in second in the division with an 83-79 record.

In Game

With 24,593 in attendance on a chilly 43° afternoon, Tom Koehler and Joe Ross were facing off, each in their first start of the year.

Giancarlo Stanton opened the scoring early, with runners on the corners and one out in the first. He drove Dee Gordon home with a single into left field. Bryce Harper tied it up in the bottom of the inning, doubling in Anthony Rendon.

The score remained tied at one until the bottom of the seventh. Koehler started the inning by striking out Michael Taylor on a 1-2 pitch. Rendon followed with a single into right field, and Koehler was lifted after 101 pitches with a respectable 51 GameScore.

Coming Undone

His replacement, Chris Narveson, quickly allowed things to come unraveled. Harper doubled Rendon to third on the second pitch that Narveson threw. Daniel Murphy was then intentionally walked to load the bases. Jayson Werth brought Rendon home with a single. After a Wilson Ramos infield fly out, Clint Robinson knocked in two more with a single into left.

With the game then at 4-1, relievers Blake Treinen and Dustin McGowan traded 1-2-3 innings. Jonathan Papelbon was inserted into the game.

Marcell Ozuna opened the Miami Marlins’ ninth with a fly ball into deep left field, collected for an out by Taylor. Christian Yelich followed him with his first home run of the season. Stanton struck out on a 1-2 pitch, then Martin Prado got to first with a single into center field. Dietrich, on the bench all day, was inserted to pinch-hit for Narveson.

Our Plate Appearance

Representing the tying run at the plate, Dietrich nevertheless would face an uphill battle. According to FanGraphs, he only had a 3.6% chance of a Marlins victory at the beginning of the plate appearance.

Papelbon’s first pitch to Dietrich was his 16th of the inning. It was an 89MPH splitter down the center part of the plate. Dietrich popped it high and into the crowd behind the third base dugout. The next pitch was on the outside part of the plate and belt high, and. Dietrich again made it a souvenir for the folks on the left side.

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Papelbon’s third offering, an 84MPH changeup, was taken low, bouncing off the plate to backstop Ramos. Prado advanced to second on the pitch, but was not credited with a stolen base, scored as defensive indifference. The chance of a Marlins victory increased incrementally, to 3.8%.

Ramos then visited Papelbon on the mound. The final pitch of the at bat was in the lower outside quadrant of the plate, an 85MPH slider, and probably could have been taken for ball two. Dietrich instead lunged for it, poking it up the middle to Nats second baseman Murphy. While Dietrich charged toward first base at full speed, Murphy calmly flipped it to Robinson for the final out of the game.

The Rest of the Miami Marlins Season

The Marlins went on to put up a 78-78 record the rest of the way, to finish at 79-82. The season was a magical one for Jose Fernandez, who went 16-8 with a 2.86 ERA and 253 strikeouts and a 1.119 WHIP in 182 1/3 innings. Of course in hindsight, we know that Fernandez’ life was tragically cut short in late September. A lot of the Miami Marlins fanbase hasn’t been the same since.

Dietrich’s Season

Despite not being considered a “starter,” Dietrich ranked seventh on the Marlins with 128 games played. He slashed .279/.374/.425 with seven home runs, 42 RBI, and an NL leading 24 HBP. Dietrich has gone on to become a key cog in Miami’s offense and a versatile defender.

I select the Plate Appearance of the Day by using random.org. I select a random year from 1993 through 2018, then a random game number, usually between one and 162. That is, unless the season was in a strike year or a season in which the Miami or Florida Marlins made the postseason. Then I select a number between one and the final game number. After that, I count up the plate appearances, and select a random one. The player of the day is whoever was either pitching or hitting for the Marlins in the selected plate appearance.

Next: D-Train Makes a Stop: Florida Marlins History

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