Jazz's all-around night proves 'he can take over a game'

MIAMI -- About halfway through Spring Training, Jesús Sánchez egged on Jazz Chisholm Jr. by saying that he would hit more home runs than him this season.

With a laser-like tater on Tuesday night, Sánchez has pulled within one of his Marlins teammate’s season total (13) with 61 games to go. Both were reminded of their banter postgame.

“That's not going to happen,” Chisholm said. “That's not going to happen. He has a good stretch right now, but that's not going to happen.”

“I’m working on it,” Sánchez said with his trademark smile.

While Sánchez went deep, Chisholm impacted the game with his bat, wheels and arm in the Marlins’ 6-3 victory over the American League-leading Orioles at loanDepot park. Following the All-Star break, Miami has wins in three of five games against the contending Mets and O’s.

“We're very locked in this second half,” Sánchez said via interpreter Luis Dorante Jr. “We're very focused on what we do, and you can see the results. As long as we continue to focus on those little things, you're going to see these results.”

Down 1-0 in the second, Sánchez led the charge in Miami’s four-spot against right-hander Albert Suárez.

Sánchez’s game-tying homer had a hang time of 4.7 seconds (quickest among Marlins home runs this season) and an exit velocity of 114.7 mph (the fastest Marlins homer this season).

“It got out of the park fast,” Chisholm said. “Like as soon as I looked up, it was already in the stands. I was looking like, ‘Oh my God.’ I had to watch the replay to see the swing. So it was just like, crazy. Sánchez is a great hitter, obviously. I told him he can really have 30 to 40 every year if he wants. So for me, I just told him to keep focused and keep going.”

Otto Lopez then ripped a single to left, stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error by catcher Adley Rutschman. After Xavier Edwards walked, Nick Gordon drove in Lopez with an RBI single up the middle.

Following Ali Sánchez’s sacrifice bunt to place a pair of runners in scoring position, Chisholm sent a pitch to center with the infield drawn in. Right fielder Anthony Santander cut across center fielder Cedric Mullins’ line of vision, so Chisholm, who also added two stolen bases, didn’t stop at first base and used his elite sprint speed (30 ft/sec) on a two-run hustle double. He went from home to second in 7.83 seconds -- the fastest time by any Marlin this season.

“That's him,” Sánchez said. “He can run, he can hit for power. That's him, and once we see him doing all these little things, it really feeds us off that adrenaline and that emotions. So that's pretty much what we do.”

Baltimore trimmed the deficit to 4-3 against righty Kyle Tyler in the third, but it could’ve been worse had it not been for Chisholm’s defense. On Ryan Mountcastle’s single to center, Colton Cowser tried to go from first to third on the play. Chisholm fired a throw 85.2 mph -- just his 17th-fastest on the season -- on a dime for the final out of the inning.

Miami responded with two runs of its own in the bottom half of the frame, and four relievers, including former Oriole Tanner Scott, kept the O’s off the scoreboard over the final 4 1/3 frames.

“He can take over a game offensively, defensively,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “I put him at second, put him in center field -- two premier positions, in my opinion. Anything strong up the middle, I trust Jazz in. And then at the plate, he's hit a ball of 104-105 [mph] against a lefty, too, so he's staying on the sliders. He's hitting the lefties really well.

“He made a really good adjustment from the first at-bat to the second at-bat getting on top of the fastball, not trying to do too much, and both hits were up the middle. When you see Jazz using the whole field and not just pull, hook, he's in a really good place and using the big part of the field. And scoring position is the goal. He did that. And then the hustle double -- there's not too many guys that can do that, and especially against the No. 1 outfield defense out there. It just shows you what kind of player Jazz is.”