This Date in Marlins History: Adam Conley’s Hitless Start

Four years ago on this date, the Miami Marlins defeated the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-3 at Miller Park.

Before the exodus of the “best outfield in the majors,” and before J.T Realmuto was a member of the Philadelphia Phillies, and before the untimely demise of the then-present and future ace of the Miami Marlins, Jose Fernandez, the 2016 Miami Marlins were considered by some as a possible wild-card team in the tough National League East.

Left-handed starter Adam Conley had posted a 4-1 record with a 3.76 ERA and a 1.284 WHIP through 67 innings in 2015 as a rookie for the Marlins. Prior to the Friday night game against the Brewers in April of 2016, Conley’s sophomore effort was shaking out a little worse for wear. In his first 19 1/3 innings of the year, he had allowed an opposing slash of .284/.354/.514 and an ERA of 5.12. Nothing he had offered thus far hinted at the night he was to pitch against the Crew.

With 23,215 on hand in Miller Park, Conley started and lasted 7 2/3 innings, surrendering four walks, striking out seven, and allowing a grand total of zero hits. With two outs in the eighth, Conley was lifted in favor of reliever Jose Urena, who finished the eighth inning with a Jonathan Villar groundout.

But Urena couldn’t maintain the combined-no-hitter, nor even the shutout in the ninth. Urena gave up four ninth inning hits for three runs while collecting only two outs. A.J. Ramos relieved, and walked two before blessedly closing the door on a Villar swinging strikeout.

Theatrics notwithstanding, the Miami Marlins did, after all, walk away with the 6-3 win. Conley’s part in it remains untarnished by the passage of time. He took 116 pitches to finish four outs away from the Marlins sixth no-hitter (Edinson Volquez eventually turned the trick in 2017).

Conley threw 71 of his 116 offerings over the plate, a strike-conversion rate of 61.2 percent. His good game wasn’t entirely drama free. In the fourth inning, Domingo Santana reached base on a Miguel Rojas error, then Conley walked Villar and Ryan Braun to load the bases with nobody out. A Jonathan Lucroy swinging strikeout and a Martin Prado–Derek Dietrich–Justin Bour double play later and Conley came away clean.

In the Marlins half of the fifth, Prado opened with a single then Christian Yelich drew a walk to set the table with no outs for Marcell Ozuna. Then this happened:

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One of only seven triple plays registered during the entirety of the 2016 MLB Championship season, it followed by a week a 9-3-2-6-2-5 triple play by the Chicago White Sox in a 5-0 win against the Texas Rangers.

Conley’s fantastic game wasn’t a one-man show for the Marlins either, as he threw his first pitch with a three-run lead thanks to a first inning home run from Bour. Bour added a third-inning RBI-double and a sixth-inning solo shot for a little insurance. Ichiro Suzuki drove in Rojas in the ninth inning with a single to give the Marlins their sixth run.

The early-season triumph left the Miami Marlins with an 11-11 record, good for fourth place in the tough N.L. East.