Solid relief puts Marlins in 'better position'

MIAMI -- When Marlins reliever Anthony Bender's slider hit Ronald Acuña Jr.’s elbow guard during the seventh inning of Friday night's 5-0 loss to the Braves at loanDepot park, there was a sense of déjà vu. A week ago, Pablo López's first-pitch sinker led to an ejection that Miami was still feeling the lingering effects of.

With Atlanta ahead, 1-0, in Friday’s series opener, Acuña took umbrage to Bender’s 82.4 mph offering. He slowly began to head toward the mound, but home-plate umpire Jordan Baker and catcher Jorge Alfaro stopped him. Braves manager Brian Snitker came onto the field, but neither dugout cleared and play resumed. It lit a fire under the Braves, as Acuña advanced to second on Freddie Freeman’s groundout and consecutive RBI doubles extended their lead to three.

According to Statcast, Bender's slider moves 4.1 inches vertically and 3.3 inches horizontally above average. This one didn’t break.

“I've really grown tired of the drama, honestly,” manager Don Mattingly said. “I don't know what to say, really. I'm sure anybody who's ever played the game top to bottom knows that wasn't intentional. Just tired of it, tired of talking about it.”

Added Snitker: “Not a big deal. He hit him with a breaking ball. Everybody handled themselves fine.”

Last Friday, Acuña scored the game's only run following the hit-by-pitch. Of the seven times he has been hit by Marlins pitching in 269 career plate appearances, including the postseason, he has come around to score thrice -- in each of the last three occasions.

It has been a highly contested season series between the Braves and Marlins, with the latter having taken six of 11 after years of dominance by the reigning National League East champs. But an already taxed bullpen was tasked with eating up even more innings as Zach Thompson, who was scheduled to start, was feeling under the weather.

Anthony Bass opened, surrendering a homer to Freeman. Shawn Morimando, who received a call at 9:15 a.m. ET to make the five-hour drive south from Jacksonville, Fla., to Miami after his contract was selected, followed with five scoreless innings.

Morimando previously pitched for the Marlins on May 24 in his first Major League appearance in five years. But his long-awaited return didn’t go as he hoped. Tasked with recording the final three outs of a 9-2 ballgame, Morimando instead was chased after giving up four runs and creating a save situation.

“I was super excited to be able to have another opportunity to get back up here to compete, and just kind of be myself,” Morimando said. “I've been working hard down there in Jacksonville, trying to be more consistent with all my pitches and really attack the strike zone, change up the looks. I'm a four-pitch-mix pitcher. Just keep on changing the eye level and stuff and just keep on attacking. Even if I'm missing, just keep going on to the next pitch, keep it moving.”

The 28-year-old’s outing marked the third straight game the Marlins have gotten a strong long-relief performance from a pitcher called up from Triple-A Jacksonville.

Wednesday (9-6 win)
RHP Jordan Holloway
4 1/3 IP, 2 H, 6 K (60 pitches)

Thursday (6-1 loss)
RHP Nick Neidert
4 IP, 3 H, 2 K (65 pitches)

Friday (5-0 loss)
LHP Shawn Morimando
5 IP, 3 H, 4 BB, 5 K (90 pitches)

This is the first time in club history a reliever has worked four or more innings in three consecutive games. According to Elias Sports Bureau, the last MLB team to achieve that was the Orioles from Sept. 12-14, 1991 (Dave Johnson, Jim Poole, Todd Frohwirth).

But the Marlins mustered just two hits, dropping their second straight after winning three in a row against the Dodgers. Miami is back to 11 games below .500 and 9 1/2 games behind the Mets in the division.

“It's been good from Jordan to Nick to Morimando. It's been nice to get that,” Mattingly said. “That could've been going a different direction. But all three of those guys really did a great job and really probably put us in a better position these last couple of days, obviously getting to the break, to be able to use the guys we want to use if we can get ourselves in the right position.”