Hoping to spark an offense that lacked consistency on their recently completed homestand, the Marlins switched around their order for Thursday's road opener against the Mets at Citi Field. In five losses this season, Miami has scored seven runs (and been shut out twice) on 28 hits, with 37 men left on base and a .118 average with runners in scoring position.
Starling Marte, who has only appeared in the No. 2 hole since joining the Marlins in a Trade Deadline deal last season, moved to third with Miguel Rojas slotting into his place. Entering Thursday, Rojas has a slash line of .265/.313/.372 with a .685 OPS in 44 career games started as the No. 2 batter. Primarily used in the eighth spot of the lineup throughout his career, he did hit leadoff in the second and third games of 2021 when the Rays started a left-hander on the mound.
"Just wanted to give everybody a little different feel," Marlins manager Don Mattingly said during a Zoom call. "It's pretty much the same cast of characters. We've just got to mix it up a little bit. It's a little different feel. I like Miggy up there as part of our lineup. Kind of a bigger part of the order, and his at-bat quality is really good."
According to Statcast, Rojas' 2021 strikeout and walk rates of 9.5 and 14.3 percent, respectively, are above league average. Of Thursday's starters, leadoff batter Corey Dickerson (.532) and Marte (.471) pace the team in expected slugging percentage. As part of the lineup shuffling, Adam Duvall moved from the cleanup spot to sixth. Though the free-agent acquisition has homered once in five games, he also has struck out seven times and has not walked.
"The thing about lineups is, really just one guy has to hit, and you're hoping that they're in a position with guys on base to drive in runs and be on base for the next guy," Mattingly said. "That type of thing. You don't really want guys to think, 'I'm hitting in the leadoff spot, so I've got to hit differently. I'm hitting third, I hit differently.'
"Miggy and I've been through this over the years, because we move him around a lot, and I know he's kind of come to that conclusion that like, 'I don't change, I just hit, right?' You stick with your game plan to try to get a good pitch to hit, but you're hoping it starts coming up with men on base, and having a chance to drive in runs and also be out there for [Jesús Aguilar] and the guys behind him."
Behind the dish
The Marlins decided to use the road opener as an extra day of rest for Jorge Alfaro, who has had some left hamstring tightness since Tuesday night, per Mattingly. With no game on Friday, Miami's primary catcher will have three days off.
"Just hopefully get him back to 100 percent," Mattingly said. "His gait's not changed any, but he did have a little tightness in his hammy, and we want to hopefully give that a chance to get out of there."
Chad Wallach started at catcher for the second straight game. He was Nick Neidert's batterymate for three of his four regular-season appearances in 2020. This spring, Neidert worked with Alfaro twice (scoreless in five innings), Wallach twice (scoreless in three innings) and Sandy León twice (three runs in 4 2/3 innings).
Injury updates
Starting pitcher Elieser Hernandez, who landed on the injured list on Monday after exiting his season debut on Saturday with right biceps inflammation, is "feeling better every day” and “basically any kind of stiffness in his shoulder has left," per Mattingly. He will start playing light catch on Friday.
Top prospect Sixto Sánchez's status remains the same. Last Friday, an MRI revealed mild inflammation in the back of his right shoulder after he experienced discomfort in his first outing at the alternate training site on March 31. Had that setback not happened, Sánchez's season debut would've come in Sunday's series finale in New York.
"It's kind of the same," Mattingly said of Sánchez. "It's going to be a slow return. Got to build him back up after shutting him down. Think about Elieser: At this point, this was his day. This is his fifth day since that start, and those five days of no throwing turns into a couple more days, then you start ramping up, then you throw a bullpen [session].
"And then if you make a start, you've got another five days. So for a starting pitcher, it's a little bit of a process. So a five-, six-, 10-day shutdown turns into three weeks to a month."