PHOENIX -- What if I told you that in the same month, the Marlins would get swept by a ballclub on pace to lose the most games in MLB history and go on a six-game win streak?
Marlins rookie Agustín Ramírez produced the decisive knock in Saturday afternoon’s 8-7 comeback victory over the D-backs in 10 innings at Chase Field. Miami has won six in a row for the first time since Aug. 31 - Sept. 6, 2023, and three consecutive series.
At the season’s halfway point, the young Marlins are playing their best baseball. Miami is guaranteed at least .500 ball in June (13-12 record). Since June 10, the club is 12-5. Only the Astros have more wins (13) since that date and the Brewers are tied with Miami.
“We're just playing good baseball all around,” Dane Myers said. “I think confidence is oozing from everybody. It feels like when somebody doesn't get a job done, we have full confidence in the next guy to get it done. Ever since opening weekend, we've kind of had this fight mentality, ‘Fightin’ Fish,’ as I like to say, and I think that's what you're seeing now.”
Everyone is contributing to the Marlins’ success, but here are a few standouts from Saturday’s game:
RHP Anthony Bender
For the first time this season, Bender went two innings to shut down the D-backs in the ninth and 10th on 20 pitches. He sat down Arizona’s top six batters in order.
During this six-game win streak, Bender has tossed four scoreless outings -- three of them of at least four outs.
“Anthony Bender going out there today, a couple innings there, haven't asked very much of that this year to go do it, he was great,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “So I think guys are just stepping up and taking the opportunities that are presented to them, and going out there and competing their butts off.”
With Otto Lopez as the automatic runner in the 10th, Ramírez sent righty Juan Morillo’s first-pitch slider through the right side of the infield for an RBI hit. Ramírez, who also had an RBI double in the first, leads all NL rookies in homers (12) and RBIs (33).
“I'm just making the adjustment and just learning from every game and every situation,” Ramírez said via interpreter Luis Dorante Jr. “You learn something every day.”
OF Dane Myers
In the ninth, Myers led off with a single and stole second against righty Shelby Miller. With one out, Myers used a swim move to swipe third after the initial out call was overturned. With the infield drawn in, Heriberto Hernandez, who pinch-hit for Jesús Sánchez in the eighth, produced a game-tying sacrifice fly to right.
“Growing up, a couple swim lessons, so it's cool to see that pay off in a baseball game,” Myers said. “Kind of instincts. Usually, whenever the ball beats me there is usually the time I have to pull it out. A lot of infielders in the league are pretty good at slightly blocking the bag where it's not illegal, so it's nice to have that swim move in the back pocket.
“Credit to [first-base coach Tyler Smarslok], credit to the staff kind of preparing me in being ready for that situation, a couple things I was looking for. I can't really say, to give away the tell, but attribute the staff for both of those steals.”
SS Otto Lopez
Trailing 7-3 in the eighth, Lopez extended his hit streak to nine games with a two-run homer off lefty Jalen Beeks. Lopez has gone deep in consecutive games and has collected an RBI in six straight contests.
Since taking over as the club's shortstop on May 21, Lopez is batting .289 with four doubles, five homers, 23 RBIs, five steals and the fourth-highest FanGraphs WAR (1.4) among MLB shortstops, behind only Houston's Jeremy Peña (2.2), Philadelphia's Trea Turner (2.0) and Cincinnati's Elly De La Cruz (1.9).
“We're seeing how hard he's hitting the ball now,” McCullough said. “To go opposite field for a homer, he drove the ball to center to the wall. You can see the confidence that Otto has now with a lot of the takes, and when he's getting pitches that are in the strike zone, the aggressiveness that he's getting swings off, looking to impact the ball. … It's a very confident player. We've had a lot of belief in Otto, and I think that what we're seeing now, we believe, is a version of Otto that can consistently show up over time.”