The Marlins, ‘a bunch of fighters,’ continue to shock MLB with fast start. Can they sustain it?
As Derek Jeter did a television interview during the Miami Marlins’ long-awaited 2020 home opener on Friday, he was asked about the team exceeding expectations.
“Whose expectations?” Jeter, the Marlins’ CEO, quipped back before the question finished.
Well, just about everyone outside of the organization.
The Marlins, in Year 3 of their rebuild, weren’t expected to be playoff contenders heading into spring training or when the season eventually started four months later than usual due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The little external optimism out there for this still-rising team seemed to be eliminated when, three games into the season, the Marlins’ season was shut down for a week after 18 players and two coaches in their traveling party tested positive for COVID-19.
But here the Marlins were on Friday, using an all-around effort to beat the Braves 8-2 in their delayed home opener. They improved to 9-4 on the season.
It’s mid-August, and the Marlins are in first place in the National League East.
The question remains: Can they sustain this, even in a season that’s only 60 games? Can a motley crew of a roster, one that has already made 60 roster moves and sent 45 players out to the field over the span of just 13 games, keep riding this wave of momentum they’ve created for themselves?
Time will tell.
“They’re playing the game the right way,” Jeter said on Fox Sports Florida. “They’re playing hard. They continue to fight. It’s been a good week and a half for us [on the field], but we’ve got to continue. This is a shorter season. Every game counts.”
The Marlins played that way again on Friday, just like they have in about every game since they returned to the field against the Baltimore Orioles on Aug. 4.
The pitching staff, led by six strong innings from Pablo Lopez, held the two-time defending NL East champion Braves to two runs and stranded six Atlanta hitters on base.
The offense used a flurry of small ball and tactical baserunning to break open a game that was tied 2-2 early.
Momentum truly shifted in the fourth inning, when a Magneuris Sierra squeeze bunt scored Eddy Alvarez from third base after Alvarez did a stutter step to throw off Braves reliever Grant Dayton. Jon Berti also stole home later in the inning on a double steal. The Marlins added two more runs the sixth and another pair in the seventh to pull away with the win.
“Speed is a difficult thing to deal with,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said.
It turns out the same can be said about facing an underdog team with confidence. Even with having to make 60 roster moves over their first 13 games of the season, the Marlins have proven they are not only still able to field a competitive team, they are able to win as well.
This is a team missing three-fifths of its starting rotation, two-thirds of its original bullpen, and its starting shortstop, catcher and second baseman. The active roster has five players picked up via trade, free agency or waiver wire claim during the week the Marlins’ season was put on hold. Two more are on the injured list.
“For us, right now, everything that the team has been through, you just go out [and play],” said Matt Joyce, an offseason signing who opened the season on the IL after testing positive for COVID-19 and was part of the wave of callups at the start of the month. “You try to put it all behind you. You play the game. You play it hard, and you play it the way you know how to play it and see where you end up. Right now, we’re on a good roll.
“You’ve got a bunch of grinders. You’ve got a bunch of fighters. You also have a bunch of guys that are having fun.”
The Marlins knew this was going to be a challenging season from the start. An extra hurdle — albeit a big one in replacing more than half their roster at the same time — was just another way they were going to have to adapt.
The mindset and the end goal never changed even if the players on the roster did.
They have 47 more games to prove that they can sustain this unexpected hot start.
“If you ever take the field and you’re expecting to lose, then you’re in the wrong profession and you’re playing for the wrong organization,” Jeter said. “I’ve said it from Day 1, the guys here are major-league players. When they’re out here, they’re expected to do their jobs. I understand that you’re going to have good times and you’re going to have bad times, you’re going to struggle and you’re going to have success. But the bottom line is the mentality every time you go out there should be you’re going out there to win games. Our guys have bought into that.”
