DENVER -- When the Marlins sent center fielder Starling Marte and cash considerations to the A’s on July 28 in exchange for left-hander Jesús Luzardo, Miami looked at the deal as a potential steal. After all, with Marte scheduled to be a free agent at the end of the season, and Luzardo’s electric stuff that had been overshadowed by poor results of late, it could turn out to be the very definition of a high-upside move.
Luzardo, whom the Nationals selected in the third round of the 2016 Draft out of Parkland’s Stoneman-Douglas High School, threw five solid innings in his Marlins debut, giving up three runs on five hits over five innings against the Mets in front of family and friends. But his first road outing in a Miami uniform was a struggle -- he surrendered seven runs over 4 2/3 innings in a 7-4 loss to the Rockies at Coors Field on Saturday night.
“I made some pitches in certain spots, but when it came down to crunch time, I didn’t,” said the 23-year-old left-hander. “I have to cut down on the walks. There were a couple of tough hits, but other than that, basically it was all on me and making my pitches in certain spots.”
A day after staff ace Sandy Alcantara gave up a career-high 10 runs over 3 2/3 innings, Luzardo couldn’t help the Marlins right the ship. For the second consecutive game, it was the fourth inning where things went south for Miami. Luzardo had held Colorado’s lineup to one run over the first three frames, but in the fourth, he yielded back-to-back singles from Trevor Story and Charlie Blackmon before C.J. Cron doubled them both home. Two batters later, Connor Joe singled in the Rockies’ fourth run.
Walks hurt Luzardo in the fifth -- after retiring the first two batters, he gave up a Brendan Rodgers double followed by a Story single to put runners at the corners. Still with a chance to escape the inning unscathed, Luzardo walked Cron and Elias Díaz to force in another run. Joe then brought Luzardo’s start to an end with a two-run single that made it 7-0.
Every outing for this young pitching staff, as Alcantara showed in Friday night’s blowout loss, is a chance to learn something. The same goes for the newest member of the starting rotation, Luzardo. In his case, cavernous Coors Field dealt him a difficult hand, but he seemed to take it in stride despite the poor results.
Blackmon’s at-bats against Luzardo, in particular, embodied that Saturday with a couple of flares into the enormous outfield -- one was a double with an exit velocity of 66.8 mph off the bat in the second inning, and another was a 43.8 mph broken-bat single in the fourth.
“To be honest with you, I did feel like I made certain pitches -- I’m not one to make excuses, so, obviously, if it didn’t go well, it didn’t go well and I own up to that -- at times I did feel like I had a little bit of bad luck and that’s just part of the game,” Luzardo said. “I felt like I made certain pitches in certain spots that would usually get you out of an inning or get you an out or two, and they just didn’t go my way.
“... I can’t let, whether it’s a bloop hit or whatever it is, kind of get to me and let it spiral out of control. I need to be able to stop the bleeding right away.”
The mantra for this Marlins club has been growth. For Luzardo, it came in pitching through tough luck Saturday. But a unique way in which that manifested itself was Jorge Alfaro’s play in left field, where the Marlins moved him after Miami acquired catcher Alex Jackson from the Braves prior to the Trade Deadline. In the seventh inning, Díaz doubled into the left-field corner. Alfaro played the carom perfectly and made an 89.9 mph relay throw to third baseman Brian Anderson, who completed the 7-5-2 play to nab Cron at the plate.
“Wow,” said acting manager James Rowson of the play. “Honestly, I mean that’s about a good a throw as you see coming in, and then Andy finishes it with another great throw. I mean, you talk about two great throws, and then [Jackson] makes a great tag on that play -- you couldn’t draw it up any better.”
Rowson said that Alfaro, who entered the game with only five games of Major League experience in the outfield, seems to be getting more comfortable out there.
“We talked about his athleticism as well,” Rowson said. “And I think we’re starting to see that he’s able to make the adjustment pretty quickly just because of the type of athlete that he is, too.”
In the final analysis, the 2021 Marlins’ season and the franchise’s progress toward where it hopes to go in the years ahead were encompassed in one phrase Rowson has found himself uttering often, but for good reason:
“There’s no greater teacher than experience.”