The Marlins couldn’t have picked a better script to support their rebuilding blueprint. Sandy Alcantara, the winning pitcher, was the centerpiece of the Marcel Ozuna trade with St. Louis and won Game 1 against Chicago, 5-1, on Wednesday at empty Wrigley Field.
Corey Dickerson and Jesus Aguilar were added to provide some veteran consistency to a lackluster offense and delivered home runs in Game 1. Chicago starter Kyle Hendricks was working a shutout into the seventh inning until Dickerson’s three-run home run made it, 3-1.
“He was solid all day, hitting his spots, very tough at-bat,” Dickerson said of Hendricks. “It was about getting a good pitch and not missing. … I got a good pitch to hit.”
Jesus Aguilar, claimed off waivers in December, followed with a two-run home run in the seventh to make it, 5-1. Aguilar had a bad 2019 and the Marlins hope was he’d show more of his previous talents. He finished second behind Brian Anderson with eight home runs and 34 RBI this season. His thinking in coming to the Marlins?
“This is the perfect team to regain my confidence,” he said.
2. So much of a three-game series is starting pitching. Alcantara was dominant in keeping the Marlins close until they broke out offensively in the seventh inning. He wasn’t great, manager Don Mattingly said, considering he never got his change-up working. But there was no complaining with the results: One run, three hits and four strike-outs in 6 2/3 innings. Alcantara is representative of the odd year — starting the Marlins opener then missing more than a month due to testing positive for the coronavirus.
3. Now Rookie Sixto Sanchez gets the start in Game 2 against Chicago’s Yu Darvish (8-3, 2.01). Sanchez was dominant his first three starts, then faltered his past two (when he faced two teams for the second time). One word Mattingly kept coming back to with Sanchez: Aggressive.
“Sixto’s got Sixto stuff,” he said. “It’s as good as anybody. He’ll be aggressive. We’ll push him to be aggressive.”
The key with Sanchez and the other young pitchers, he said is, “don’t pitch away from your fastball. Don’t be afraid to use it. Sometimes guys want to get cute, use other stuff and they don’t know why. We’re trying to define why and when for them.”
4. For a young team like the Marlins, you could say having no fans is an advantage at a place like Wrigley Field. How much it helps is another issue considering the 2003 Marlins, for instance, had a lot of young players in beating the Cubs, too. But Aguilar played a tough series with Milwaukee in Wrigley a year ago and felt loud presence of the fans.
“It’s way different,” he said of the empty ballpark. “The fans here run over you. They’re going to talk a lot of trash the whole game. Without fans, it’s kind of easy for the visiting team. You can just be focused on playing the game the right way, that’s a big difference.”
5. The Marlins can run their post-season series record to 7-0 for the franchise on Thursday. Sure, it’s a little break in history, but they didn’t lose a series in their previous World Series runs in 1997 and 2003. Dickerson said all the close games and tense experiences of this season have helped them play in a way they might not have otherwise.
“We can go out there and have fun,” he said. “We’re a lot looser. We’re confident.”
