Dave Hyde: Marlins win individual battle, but lose Game 2 as Brave rivalry builds
When Miami Marlins pitcher Sandy Alcantara called out Atlanta Braves lead-off hitter Ronald Acuna Jr., on Tuesday, you understood there was a mano-a-mano beef. “If he’s ready to fight, I’m ready to fight, too,” he said.
When shortstop Miguel Rojas upped the ante by posting a picture of Acuna spiking him in the Marlins’ Game 1 loss, you saw the full team was involved in the spat.
“Nobody talks about that,” Rojas wrote on social media of the spiking. “Who cares about a middle infielder getting spiked on the knee.”
Finally, when Marlins manager Don Mattingly labeled the spiking what it was a few hours before Wednesday’s Game 2 — “a dirty play” — it was official. Everyone on the Marlins had some issue with Acuna.
And so when Pablo Lopez struck out Acuna to start Wednesday’s Game 2 on three change-ups, and then struck him out twice more in the game for good measure, that’s the kind of script you just needed a win to write.
And they didn’t get the win.
The Marlins lost to Atlanta, 2-0.
I’m writing it anyhow.
Here’s my take: Ain’t it grand the Marlins have a public nemesis? That’s part of any growing-up process, easier than finding the young arms the Marlins have, but a natural step to be taken.
Acuna looks the part, too. He’s loud. He’s dirty. He’s in the same division. And he’s great — no, really great, probably the best Atlanta player in a lineup of great players.
He’s just the kind of player the Marlins covet to fill out the batting lineup in the manner they have the pitching roster. When they get one, or two, they’ll have arrived as a team.
That was the Marlins problem in losing Game 2 to Atlanta, 2-0. That’s if it’s a problem they achieved to reach the postseason, overachieved to sweep Chicago and now sit one way away from having their long, long, long journey end.
So the Marlins reached a point no one expected, and now they face a team they’re not grown-up enough to beat. That’s the bottom line of this series. There’s no shame in that.
You’re getting a chance to see these Marlins grow up, if you’re watching by now. It was Lopez’s turn on Wednesday. He gave up two solo home runs in five innings. That’s not bad against a Braves line-up ranked third in the National League in runs this shortened season.
“We’ve put pressure on them and they’ve put pressure on themselves to play these type of games,” Mattingly said of his young players in the playoffs. “This style of baseball is good for everyone across the board, knowing what it takes at this level, the focus it takes.”
Because they were hit by the coronavirus and because they’re so young, it was easy for the baseball world to root for the Marlins. But no one expected them to come out of this Braves series.
If the Marlins have been facing this kind of talk all year, giving birth to their nickname of “Bottom Feeders,” it’s a little different now given the talent on the other side in a best-of-five series.
The Marlins are down to their final loss, and rookie Sixto Sanchez gets the start. He’s another who took a big step this year. Now he tries to keep that development going.
No matter, you’re seeing the future play out in ways big and small. Acuna is the small, if fun, story. Alcantara hit him with a pitch on Wednesday to start the fireworks. It was the fifth time they hit him — a big number when you consider he’s been hit 24 times.
“They have to hit me, because they can’t get me out,” he put on social media after Game 1.
He wasn’t hit in Game 2. He struck out three times. He was hitless in four at-bats.
The Marlins won the rivalry and lost Game 2. It’s not a trade-off you’d take. But you get the idea this story isn’t ending with this series. Acuna is 22. He’s as young as this developing Marlins team. He’ll be waiting there when they grow up.
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