Like father, like son: Conines join exclusive company with HR feat

MIAMI – It might be time to anoint the Conines as the “Marlins Family.”

When Griffin Conine demolished Cubs lefty Caleb Thielbar’s inside fastball for a two-run homer in the fifth inning of Saturday’s 6-5 loss at loanDepot park, it made him part of baseball history.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Griffin and his father, Jeff (aka “Mr. Marlin”), became the 10th father/son duo with 20 or more career homers each for the same franchise, joining:

Bobby/Barry Bonds (SF)
Cecil/Prince Fielder (DET)
Dave/Shelley Duncan (CLE)
Felipe/Moises Alou (SF)
Gus/Buddy Bell (CIN)
Hal/Brian McRae (KC)
Ken Griffey Sr./Jr. (CIN)
Randy/Todd Hundley (CHC)
Tony/Eduardo Perez (CIN)

“It's really cool,” Griffin said. “It's tough to do just because second generation, then also with the same team. There's a lot of factors involved that have to link up. It's definitely really special to me and him.”

Added Jeff via text: “A friend sent a text earlier that only 20 people in the world can say that!”

This milestone likely would have happened sooner if Griffin, who was appearing in his 129th career game, hadn’t dealt with injuries in each of the past two seasons that made him miss substantial time. As a result, his 20th career home run (15th this season) came in just his 375th career at-bat.

On a more micro scale, the left-handed-hitting Conine is finally finding success against southpaws. It was just his second career home run against a lefty and his first extra-base hit against one this season. And this one traveled far: a projected 430 feet to the second deck in right. In Friday’s series opener, Conine also went 2-for-3 against lefty Shota Imanaga.

“Those are definitely the most rewarding at-bats to have success in, just because, like you said, being a platoon early in the season, and then you do well enough to start to get some opportunities, and then it's just a different equation to figure out as a hitter,” Conine said. “It's not as simple as, ‘If you have a good swing, it should work for both arms.’ There's a lot involved with approach and where you have to set your sights and pitches breaking differently. A lot of it's getting reps. You just need reps, plain and simple.

“You can mimic it in the cage and do all the machine work you want, but until you're getting in the box against those guys and working counts and starting to see how they pitch you and how they approach you differently, that's the only time we can build that success.”

The 29-year-old Conine doesn’t get those opportunities without first being consistent at the plate against righties and showing better plate discipline. During the early part of the season, Conine – like many of the lefty bats on the roster – platooned depending on pitcher handedness.

In early August, a combination of July’s production, Liam Hicks’ departure at the Trade Deadline and Kyle Stowers’ injury made Conine into an everyday player. Since Aug. 8, he is batting .263/.404/.474 with one double, five homers and 12 RBIs in 25 games.

“You want to do the best in the role that you're given, which for me earlier in the year was to crush righties and be my best against them,” Conine said. “That's what a lot of the work looked like in the cage. I didn't work a whole lot on lefty stuff just because it was clear I wasn’t going to get those opportunities, and I wanted to kind of maximize the ones I was getting. So then their shift happened and some injuries allowed me to get more of those looks, and then the cage work kind of shifted to, ‘We need to start working on this stuff if we want to see it show up.’”

On Saturday, Conine also walked three times, including with two outs in the ninth when he requested an ABS challenge that overturned a strikeout on a pitch that missed the zone by 0.1 inches.

“He certainly has earned the opportunities that he's getting through the production,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “And again, his at-bat quality is getting better, and also just to have him out there on a regular basis for him and us to see it. Not surprised with the power. We all believe that Griff has this type of ability to impact and slug, and it's nice to see him drawing his share of walks. The at-bat quality is getting better, and that puts him in a position where if he's hunting the right type of pitches, he's going to give himself a chance to do damage, because he hits the ball really hard and generally hits it in the air.”