Miami Marlins Pull Off Home-and-Away Doubleheader Sweep

The Marlins swept the Baltimore Orioles in a home-and-away doubleheader.

In most seasons, it wouldn’t really be fair to call an away game a home game. Since 2020 doesn’t have any fans in the stands, the Miami Marlins batted second in the nightcap to pull off the illusion.

In the first game of the scheduled pair of seven-inning games, Elieser Hernandez was called on to start. In 4 1/3 innings of work, he surrendered only two hits and a walk, striking out five Orioles.

In the meantime, Brian Anderson‘s leadoff home run in the fourth inning was all the offense the Marlins would need. It was Miami’s second hit of the game, following Jonathan Villar‘s third inning single. The Marlins didn’t have another base hit for the rest of the contest.

On the hill, Hernandez was followed by Nick Vincent, making his first Miami Marlins appearance. A nine-season major league veteran, Vincent is the 610th player to appear in a regular season game for the Marlins, following Eddy Alvarez‘ debut at second base. Alvarez went 0-for-3, while Vincent walked a batter in 1 1/3 innings.

Richard Bleier, who made his Marlins debut yesterday after playing for the Orioles since 2017, retired the only batter he faced. Brandon Kintzler pitched a scoreless seventh for his second save.

Heroes and Zeroes (Game 1)

According to FanGraphs, players with a WPA over .100 were mostly Marlins. The group was led by Vincent (.326), Kintzler (.225), and Orioles starter Alex Cobb (.168). Hernandez (.152), Orioles reliever Miguel Castro (.107), and Anderson (.100) rounded out the highest positive impact players.

As for players with a WPA of -.100 or worse, Hanser Alberto (-.296), Austin Hays (-.168), Chris Davis (-.146), Dwight Smith Jr. (-.128), and Jesus Aguilar (-.111) each turned in a less than stellar performance.

FanGraphs had the Marlins at a playoff probability of 14.7 percent after the first game.

Game two was more of a “bullpen” game for the Miami Marlins. It would feature five Marlins pitchers who went between one and two innings apiece. After a perfect top of the first by newly reacquired Josh A. Smith, Miami struck for a pair of runs in the bottom. Villar drew a walk, then moved to third on a Jon Berti double. After a Corey Dickerson strikeout, Aguilar brought Villar home on a sacrifice fly. Anderson singled Berti home to give the Marlins all they would need.

Smith pitched another scoreless frame, allowing a walk and a hit. Sterling Sharp pitched 1 2/3 innings, allowing a pair of baserunners but no runs. Another re-aquired Marlin pitcher, Colin Moran, struck out the side in a scoreless inning of work between the fourth and fifth.

Justin Shafer, another Marlins pitcher making his debut, surrendered a run in the sixth, the only run the Orioles have managed to bring home in three games. Stephen Tarpley collected a four-out save to send the Marlins to a 5-1 record. Paired with the Atlanta Braves loss, Miami now sits atop of the National League Eastern division by a half game.

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Even considering all of that, the Marlins are still projected by Fangraphs to finish the season with 27 victories, and currently have a 17 percent chance to make it in.

For those keeping track the Marlins pitching in this series shakes out thusly:

23 innings pitched, 25 strikeouts, 10 hits allowed, seven walks issued, one run. That’s a 0.39 ERA and a 0.739 WHIP between a dozen pitchers. Half of them weren’t even with the club when the season “started” at the end of July. What other surprises do the Miami Marlins have in store for us in the coming weeks? It continues tomorrow night at 7:35PM EDT, as they go for the four-game sweep of the Orioles.