Marlins break up no-no, leave Boston with sweep

BOSTON -- With arguably the biggest series of the 2023 season less than 24 hours away, the Marlins went from being no-hit through seven innings to sweeping the Red Sox in Thursday night’s 2-0 win at Fenway Park.

Miami has won five in a row and is 14 games over .500 (48-34) for the first time since 2003 – the same season the club won its second World Series. The Marlins are tied with the D-backs for the second-best record in the National League, behind the Braves (53-27). This weekend will be a showdown between the division rivals in Atlanta.

“The sweep was huge,” said left-hander Jesús Luzardo, who grew up in South Florida. “I know that being a Marlins fan, I don't think we'd won here since like 2009. I don't know if we ever swept the Red Sox in Fenway. It was incredible to be a part of it. The team, how we're playing, the energy in the clubhouse, everyone's pulling for each other. No 'I' guys. It's just a lot of fun."

Six days after pitching into the eighth for the first time in his career, Luzardo dueled Brayan Bello's no-hit bid with 6 1/3 scoreless innings of his own, allowing three hits. When Luzardo gave up back-to-back knocks in the seventh to Rafael Devers and Adam Duvall, Andrew Nardi entered and recorded the next two outs to keep it a scoreless deadlock. Two relievers followed to maintain the shutout.

But the Marlins seemingly couldn’t solve Bello. They played Thursday’s series finale shorthanded, with Garrett Cooper (illness) and Yuli Gurriel (nose) late scratches. The ailments forced Jean Segura and Jesús Sánchez into the lineup, and moved Jon Berti from third to second base and Luis Arraez to first shortly after learning he was named the NL’s starting second baseman.

Segura broke up Bello’s no-no with an infield hit to open the eighth and Joey Wendle followed with a single to right that chased Bello with runners at the corners. Segura also notched the first hit against Atlanta’s Spencer Strider in the eighth inning on April 24.

“You try not to ever think about anything like that,” Berti said. “You have a plan and approach against whoever you're facing and you're trying to execute that and not worry if we have 20 hits and 20 runs or we have no hits and no runs. It was great for Jean to get on, and then Joey, and it was nice baserunning, too, by Jean to go first to third and kind of put the defense in a little bit of a tough position.

“And then from there, I was just trying to get something that I could get in the air a little bit. Try to stay out of a double play and push the ball forward a little bit.”

Jazz Chisholm Jr. provided cushion in the ninth with a solo shot off Kenley Jansen. On his trip around the bases, Chisholm encouraged the boos from the sold-out crowd of 36,559. He has gone deep in two of three games since his return from the injured list.

“I can't imagine a better comeback than this one,” manager Skip Schumaker said of Chisholm. “A couple homers. Couple big RBIs in big situations, too. It wasn't just home run up 10 runs or something. We needed that insurance run. You always want to have that extra run in the ninth inning, against obviously a really good lineup in the meat of the order coming up. So having an extra run was big.”

Miami now ventures to Atlanta, the NL East’s division leader. The Marlins have dropped six of seven to the Braves this season, having been outscored 54-22. Miami has a zero run differential this year; excluding its games against Atlanta, it's a +32 differential against everyone else.

“Like I always tell everybody, I love facing the Braves, especially facing against [Ronald Acuña Jr.], because I always want to be the best on the field, and he comes and brings it every night,” Chisholm said. “So he brings my intensity level up. He brings my competitiveness up, and it's always going to be a fun game. That's probably what you guys are going to see in the NL Championship [Series], and that's where we're planning on it to be.”