Miami Marlins at Pittsburgh Pirates
· Major League Baseball7 - 3
Chisholm homers and the surprising Miami Marlins grab an NL wild-card spot with 7-3 win over Pirates
Jazz Chisholm hit his 19th home run, Josh Bell delivered a late two-run double and the Marlins clinched the fourth playoff berth in franchise history with a 7-3 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday night.
Miami locked down one of the two remaining National League wild card spots behind Chisholm's drive, a dash of small ball and another lockdown performance by a bullpen that has carried a sizable share of the load over the last month.
A.J. Puk (7-5) and seven other relievers kept the Pirates in check, rendering any scoreboard-watching pointless.
“I feel like we’re just the biggest family in the league,” Chisholm said in a giddy postgame clubhouse. "I feel like nobody is as connected as us as a team. I feel like when someone gets going, everybody gets going. That’s the plan here and we’re just family and we’re coming in together.”
Miami began the day with its magic number whittled to one following another late comeback victory on Friday night.
One officially dropped to zero when closer Tanner Scott wrapped up his 12th save by striking out the side in the ninth, setting off a celebration on the field and behind the Miami dugout, where a small clutch of fans chanted “Lets Go Marlins!"
“Before the game we called it ‘Clinch Day’ and we weren’t expecting any other day to be Clinch Day except today,” Chisholm said. "And that’s what we did and we handled it today.”
Buoyed by first-year manager Skip Schumaker's relentless optimism and a “why not us” approach, the largely anonymous Marlins — who finished with 93 or more losses in each of the previous four non-pandemic-shortened seasons — will be in the playoffs next week while big spenders like the New York Mets and San Diego Padres will be watching from home.
“We’ve been living for six years with ‘Let’s Go Mets’ in our stadium all the time,” Marlins owner Bruce Sherman said. “Mets didn’t finish. Yankees didn’t finish. San Diego didn’t finish. Payrolls three times our and look what we did.”
What the Mets and everyone else will see is a team that keeps finding a way despite a roster bereft of stars outside of the electrifying Chisholm, who was 5 years old growing up in the Bahamas in 2003 the last time the Marlins made the playoffs at the end of a 162-game regular season.
Little was expected in 2023, yet the Marlins entered September at 67-67 and on the fringe of an underwhelming wild card race before hitting the gas over the last four weeks.
Miami used a 17-9 September surge to vault over San Francisco, Chicago and surprising Cincinnati in the standings.
Jon Berti had three hits for the Marlins and started the go-ahead rally with a leadoff walk in the sixth off Quinn Priester (3-3), beginning a sequence that symbolized Miami's “whatever it takes” approach.
Garrett Hampson bunted for a hit when Nick Gonzalez was late covering the bag at first. Both runners advanced on a sacrifice by Jacob Stallings and Berti put the Marlins in front 3-2 by beating shortstop Liover Pegeuro's throw home on a sharp grounder by Jorge Soler. Bell's sacrifice fly pushed the advantage to 4-2.
Bell — who spent five years with the Pirates from 2016-20 before bouncing from Washington to San Diego to Cleveland to Miami — provided the Marlins with some welcome insurance in the eighth with a long drive to center that drove in Berti and Soler.
“Thought I’d celebrate here years and years ago,” Bell said. "But just to be able to celebrate here now, is icing on the cake.”
A night after rallying from three runs down after the seventh inning for the sixth time this season — the most by any MLB team since 1900 — the Marlins made sure no such dramatics were required.
“This team has just exemplified heart and they know it,” said general manager Kim Ng, the first female GM in Major League Baseball history. "And I think that is the driver of this group.”
Endy Rodriguez had three hits and drove in a run for the Pirates. Jared Triolo and Ke'Bryan Hayes added two hits each. Bryan Reynolds provided an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth that trimmed Miami's lead to three, but the Pirates would get no closer.
Priester, a first-round pick in the 2019 amateur draft, put together 5 1/3 workmanlike innings as he tries to position himself for a spot in the starting rotation in 2024. Priester allowed four runs on 10 hits with a walk and three strikeouts to finish his rookie season with a 7.74 ERA in 10 games (seven starts).
TRAINER'S ROOM
Marlins: 2B Luis Arraez did not play while nursing an ankle injury. Arraez's batting average remains a major league-leading .354 as he closes in on becoming the first player in MLB history to win batting titles in different leagues in consecutive seasons.
UP NEXT
The series wraps up on Sunday. It's unclear whether the Marlins will have to return to New York on Monday to finish a suspended game against the New York Mets.
How can I watch Miami Marlins vs. Pittsburgh Pirates?
- TV Channel: Marlins at Pirates 2022 MLB Baseball, is broadcasted on MLB.tv.
- Online streaming: Sign up for Fubo.
Matchup Prediction
Scoring Summary
9th Inning | Rodríguez struck out swinging. | |
9th Inning | Davis struck out swinging. | |
9th Inning | Andujar struck out swinging. | |
9th Inning | Andujar hit for Suwinski | |
9th Inning | Berti flied out to right. | |
9th Inning | Sánchez grounded into double play, second to first, De La Cruz out at second. |
Statistics
MIA | PIT | |
---|---|---|
1 | Games Played | 1 |
1 | Team Games Played | 1 |
1 | Hit By Pitch | 1 |
21 | Ground Balls | 11 |
5 | Strikeouts | 14 |
7 | Runs Batted In | 2 |
1 | Sacrifice Hit | 1 |
14 | Hits | 12 |
0 | Stolen Bases | 0 |
2 | Walks | 1 |
0 | Catcher Interference | 0 |
7 | Runs | 3 |
2 | Ground Into Double Play | 0 |
1 | Sacrifice Flies | 0 |
38 | At Bats | 39 |
1 | Home Runs | 0 |
0 | Grand Slam Home Runs | 0 |
18 | Runners Left On Base | 22 |
0 | Triples | 0 |
1 | Game Winning RBIs | 0 |
1 | Intentional Walks | 0 |
3 | Doubles | 3 |
14 | Fly Balls | 15 |
0 | Caught Stealing | 0 |
151 | Pitches | 176 |
0 | Games Started | 0 |
0 | Pinch At Bats | 2 |
0 | Pinch Hits | 0 |
0.0 | Player Rating | 0.0 |
1 | Is Qualified | 1 |
0 | Is Qualified In Steals | 0 |
20 | Total Bases | 15 |
43 | Plate Appearances | 42 |
162.0 | Projected Home Runs | 0.0 |
4 | Extra Base Hits | 3 |
7.3 | Runs Created | 5.2 |
.368 | Batting Average | .308 |
.000 | Pinch Hit Average | .000 |
.526 | Slugging Percentage | .385 |
.211 | Secondary Average | .103 |
.405 | On Base Percentage | .341 |
.931 | OBP Pct + SLG Pct | .726 |
1.5 | Ground To Fly Ball Ratio | 0.7 |
7.1 | Runs Created Per 27 Outs | 5.0 |
51.0 | Batter Rating | 28.0 |
38.0 | At Bats Per Home Run | 0.0 |
0.00 | Stolen Base Percentage | 0.00 |
3.51 | Pitches Per Plate Appearance | 4.19 |
.158 | Isolated Power | .077 |
0.40 | Walk To Strikeout Ratio | 0.07 |
.047 | Walks Per Plate Appearance | .024 |
-.158 | Secondary Average Minus Batting Average | -.205 |
14.0 | Runs Produced | 5.0 |
1.0 | Runs Ratio | 0.7 |
0.6 | Patience Ratio | 0.4 |
0.4 | Balls In Play Average | 0.5 |
101.0 | MLB Rating | 81.5 |
0.0 | Offensive Wins Above Replacement | 0.0 |
0.0 | Wins Above Replacement | 0.0 |
Game Information
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Attendance: 25,030 | Capacity:
2024 National League East Standings
TEAM | W | L | PCT | GB | STRK |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Philadelphia | 95 | 67 | .586 | - | W1 |
Atlanta | 89 | 73 | .549 | 6 | W1 |
New York | 89 | 73 | .549 | 6 | L1 |
Washington | 71 | 91 | .438 | 24 | L1 |
Miami | 62 | 100 | .383 | 33 | W4 |
2024 National League Central Standings
TEAM | W | L | PCT | GB | STRK |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Milwaukee | 93 | 69 | .574 | - | L1 |
St. Louis | 83 | 79 | .512 | 10 | W1 |
Chicago | 83 | 79 | .512 | 10 | L1 |
Cincinnati | 77 | 85 | .475 | 16 | W1 |
Pittsburgh | 76 | 86 | .469 | 17 | L1 |