Miami Marlins Split Split-Squad Day; One W, One L

The Miami Marlins played a pair of games early Wednesday afternoon, defeating the Houston Astros 2-1 and dropping to the Baltimore Orioles, 5-3.

Miami Marlins Lose

The bad first. Caleb Smith started for the Miami Marlins with 2,292 on hand at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium in Jupiter, FL, and ended up surrendering four runs on one hit, four walks, and a wild pitch. Half of those runs occurred when Pat Valakia smacked a two-run shot in the O’s half of the second inning. The other half scored in unearned fashion in the third inning on a sacrifice bunt/Francisco Cervelli throwing error.

Already trailing 4-0, the following six Miami Marlins pitchers surrendered a total of two hits over six innings, but also gave up five walks. Aaron Northcraft (one inning, one walk, one K), Yimi Garcia (one inning, two K’s), Sterling Sharp (one inning, one K), Adam Conley (one inning, one hit, two walks, two K’s), Drew Steckenrider (one inning, one walk, two K’s), and Stephen Tarpley (one inning, one hit, one earned run, one walk) combined to keep the Marlins in the game.

In Miami’s half of the third, Brian Anderson got the Marlins on the board with a sacrifice fly to score Monte Harrison. Jonathan Villar went deep for the second time this spring in the fifth inning, a two run shot that got the Fish within a run. They would get no closer. Mason McCoy put a cherry on top for the Orioles with a ninth inning sacrifice fly.

Offensively, only Harrison contributed a multi-hit game, going two-for-three with a double and a pair of runs.

Miami Marlins Win

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In the “night cap,” the Marlins topped the Houston Astros in a bit of a pitchers duel. Elieser Hernandez started and let the Astros on the boar with a third inning Michael Brantley RBI-double. He ended up giving up three hits and a walk over his three innings of work.

The rest of the Marlins pitching staff bent but refused to break. Josh A. Smith pitched a perfect fourth, striking out one batter. Daniel Castano gave up a hit and struck out two in two innings. Tommy Eveld was credited with the win, allowing a hit but nothing else in his frame. Alex Vesia struck out a batter in a perfect eighth, and Pat Venditte whiffed two in a perfect ninth for the save.

The Marlins scored both of their runs on an eighth-inning Christian Lopes home run, his second of the spring. No Miami player had multiple hits, but Lewis Brinson hit a double to run his spring OPS to 1.350. Jesus Sanchez hit a triple in three at bats to give the Marlins three multi-base hits out of their total of six base-hits.