The Miami Marlins have punched their ticket to the NLDS with a 2-0 win over the Chicago Cubs in Game 2 of the best-of-three Wild Card Series on Friday at Wrigley Field. Hard-throwing rookie righty Sixto Sanchez threw five scoreless innings with 6 strikeouts in the win for the underdog Marlins. Garrett Cooper hit a solo home run for Miami and Magneuris Sierra included an RBI single for the video games only scoring.
With their sweep, the Marlins extended their unbeaten postseason series streak. The club is now 7-0 in playoff series, having won the 1997 and 2003 World Series. The No. 6 seed Marlins will face the No. 2 seed Atlanta Braves in the best-of-five NLDS. Game 1 is scheduled for Tuesday.
Here are four takeaways from the series:
Pitchers duel with Darvish-Sanchez
Fridays video game featured a fantastic pitching matchup with Cubs veteran right-hander and NL Cy Young prospect Yu Darvish facing off against Sanchez. Heres an appearance at both beginners last lines for the night:
Sanchez, simply 22-years-old, came out on top in the duel. Sanchez faced some difficulty in the 5th inning when he found himself facing Cubs right fielder Kyle Schwarber with the bases packed and two outs.
We understood Sanchez had power on the mound, today hes shown hes got grace too..
According to MLBs Sarah Langs, Sanchez is the seventh-youngest pitcher with a start of 5 or more scoreless innings pitched in his postseason launching. The only other more youthful pitchers to do it are Jim Palmer, Chief Bender, Steve Avery, Wally Bunker, Storm Davis and Waite Hoyt. Additionally, Sanchez tossed 65 of his 89 pitches Friday as four-seam fastballs, with a blistering average of 98.3 miles per hour. In his start, the rookie hit the 100-mph or higher mark on seven pitches, connecting him with Nathan Eovaldi for fourth most in a postseason start given that the pitch tracking started back in 2008.
Darvish certainly had a solid start, also, and hes been a stable existence for the Cubs throughout the routine season. The Cooper home run didnt come up until his 90th pitch of the game. Darvishs start was soured by Chicagos offense in Game 2, or lack thereof.
Cubs offense painfully quiet.
Speaking of which, the Cubs scored just one run in the two-game series. In the Game 1 loss, the Cubs got their lone run on Ian Happs two-out homer in the 5th inning. Happ had two of the Cubs four hits in Game 1. The lineup was not any much better in Game 2 with their 2-3-4 hitters (Anthony Rizzo, Kyle Schwarber and Kris Bryant) going 0-for-11. Yikes. Thats a primary portion of the clubs champion core from their 2016 World Series run. Jason Heyward was the only one from that 2016 bunch to get a hit in the loss on Friday; he went 2-for-3 while Javier Baez was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
The Cubs havent actually found much postseason success because winning in 2016. With their Game 2 loss to the Marlins, the Cubs have now lost nine of their last 13 postseason video games. With several of the teams core players nearing free firm, could this signal completion of the road for the group that assisted Chicago get its very first World Series in 108 years?.
Marlins playoff magic continues.
The franchise now owns a 7-0 playoff series record. The 2020 postseason is simply the clubs third playoff appearance and first since winning the 2003 World Series. Considering their NL Wild Card Series win comes just a couple of months after the group suffered a huge coronavirus outbreak at the start of the 2020 regular season, its all the more remarkable.
Just days into the postponed and abbreviated 2020 season, the Marlins suffered a minimum of 20 favorable cases of the coronavirus, with 18 total gamers checking positive. The club was forced to quarantine in a hotel in Philadelphia before gaining clearance to resume their season. And as soon as they did, they played a number of doubleheaders to make up for the held off video games.
The resiliency of this group of Marlins players is truly something special to witness.
Unclear Martes status of NLDS.
As of now, its uncertain whether outfielder Starling Marte will be cleared to play during the Division Series. The Marlins trade deadline pickup suffered a broken hand on a struck by pitch in Game 1.
The club has Marte listed as everyday for now, and the Marlins hope he will be able to play through the injury later in the postseason. Marte suffered a nondisplaced fracture of the bone running in between his left pinky and wrist on a fastball.
The Miami Marlins have actually punched their ticket to the NLDS with a 2-0 win over the Chicago Cubs in Game 2 of the best-of-three Wild Card Series on Friday at Wrigley Field. In the Game 1 loss, the Cubs got their lone run on Ian Happs two-out homer in the 5th inning. Happ had 2 of the Cubs 4 hits in Game 1. With their Game 2 loss to the Marlins, the Cubs have now lost nine of their last 13 postseason games. The Marlins trade deadline pickup suffered a broken hand on a hit by pitch in Game 1.
Sanchez definitely echoes Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez. Sanchez has actually cited him as his baseball idol and even has Pedros No. 45 as a tattoo.
