Miami Marlins: Jose Urena’s First Complete Game Tops Nats in Series Clincher

On Sunday afternoon at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., the Miami Marlins earned a 12-1, rubber-game victory over the Washington Nationals.

Jose Urena went the distance, allowing just two hits in nine innings of work. He struck out four and walked two, earning an 87 GameScore, and got 71-of-108 pitches in the strike zone. Urena was only available because he is currently appealing a six-game suspension arising from an HBP last week against Ronald Acuna and the Atlanta Braves. It was his first career complete game, on his 74th career major league start.

Game Story

Starlin Castro opened the scoring on a single into right field, scoring Rafael Ortega for a 1-0, third inning lead. Austin Dean added a two-RBI-double later in the inning to triple Miami’s lead. In the bottom of the frame, Adam Eaton scored Matt Wieters on a double. That was the only run allowed by Urena all day.

Later in the game, the Miami Marlins scored in four consecutive innings starting in the fifth. JT Riddle scored Castro on a fifth inning sacrifice fly to make it 4-1, Ortega added a two-run double to make it 6-1, and J.T. Realmuto hit a two-run single for an 8-1 advantage before the end of the inning.

Riddle hit his seventh homer of the season in the sixth inning, scoring Castro again and putting the Miami Marlins up by a 10-1 margin. Realmuto added his 16th in the seventh, and Isaac Galloway went deep for the first time in his major league career in the eighth.

Pitching

In 106 appearances prior to Sunday’s contest, Urena had never pitched a complete game. He did come close on September 11th, 2016, when he struck out four and allowed four hits in 8 2/3 shutout innings over the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Marlins won that one, 3-0. This game was the fifth one in which Urena lasted at least eight innings through his career.

A lot was made of how Urena’s 97.5 MPH pitch which struck Acuna was one of the fastest this season for Urena, but if he were to have thrown it in today’s game, it would have been the 30th fastest pitch let go by Urena. His fastest pitch of the afternoon was an eighth-inning ball to Tommy Milone, at 98.8 MPH.

Hitting

A strong point for the Miami Marlins in today’s game, they collected 17 hits in 45 at bats, which translates to a .378 average.

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• Castro had his first career five-hit game. On 19 prior occasions (including three this season for the Miami Marlins), Castro has finished games with four hits. Today, he hit three singles, two doubles, scored three runs and collected an RBI.
• Galloway had collected 69 minor league home runs in his 11 season minor league career through last week with the New Orleans Baby Cakes. In today’s game, he hit a single, a double, and a homer, scoring twice and stealing his first major league base.
• Riddle had his third straight multi-hit game, and hit a homer in his second straight game as well. In the three-game set against the Nationals, Riddle was seven-for-12 with seven RBI, and his two-for-four day raised his average to .231.

• Realmuto hit his team-leading 16th homer of the season in the seventh inning, and was two-for-five with a walk and three RBI for the game. He’s now hitting .293.
• Ortega hit safely in his fifth straight game, going nine-for-20 over that time. In 10 major league games this season for the Marlins, he’s hitting .317.
• The day after hitting his first major league home run, Austin Dean went two-for-six with a double, a run, and two RBI.

Next Up

At 7:10 PM EDT at Marlins Park on Tuesday, Pablo Lopez (2-3, 4.79) will face the New York Yankees and Masahiro Tanaka (9-4, 4.03).

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