Quiet bats can't back emerging López in G2

The emergence of Pablo López has been one of many bright spots for the Marlins in their improbable playoff season. The 24-year-old is arguably the most improved player in the organization, and on Wednesday afternoon, he proved the spotlight wasn’t too big for him.

In head-to-head matchups with Ronald Acuña Jr., López struck out the All-Star outfielder three straight times. What hurt the right-hander were a couple of solo home runs.

Dansby Swanson and Travis d’Arnaud each connected off López, and that was all the support rookie right-hander Ian Anderson needed as the Braves blanked the Marlins, 2-0, in Game 2 of the best-of-five National League Division Series at Minute Maid Park.

• Box score

Game	Date	Result	Highlights
Gm 1	Oct. 6	ATL 9, MIA 5	Watch
Gm 2	Oct. 7	ATL 2, MIA 0	Watch
Gm 3	Oct. 8	ATL 7, MIA 0	Watch

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• Postseason schedule and bracket

“Pablo, obviously, was really good,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “However many days he had off, I thought he was really sharp today. His changeup was good. It looked like he leaked one fastball; he was trying to go up to Swanson and went down and in. And then a changeup to d’Arnaud leaked back across the plate. Other than that, he was pretty good all day.”

There certainly was plenty to like about López’s first appearance since Sept. 24, when he beat the Braves at Truist Park. But unlike the previous few years, when Miami was focused more on development, the club is in the postseason. Any mistakes matter, and now the Marlins are dealing with urgency.

The Marlins' miraculous season now is on the line, as they face possible elimination in Game 3 on Thursday afternoon. Rookie right-hander Sixto Sánchez is scheduled to start with Miami in a must-win situation.

“Obviously, we have to play with a sense of urgency,” Mattingly said. “We can’t let anybody struggle. We can’t let anybody just stay out there and try to get through it. We’ll be quick to try to do everything we can.”

Miami is faced with a daunting task. In the history of best-of-five postseason series, teams taking a 2-0 lead have gone on to win the series 73 of 83 times (88 percent). The most recent team to rally from a 2-0 deficit was the Yankees against the Indians in 2017. Of the 73 teams to advance after winning the first two games, 49 finished off a sweep in Game 3.

Starting pitching has been Miami’s strength, and in a losing effort, López was sharp despite not pitching in nearly two weeks. In five innings, he allowed just two runs on three hits. López added seven strikeouts with no walks.

“I didn’t feel rusty,” López said. “I was trying to really focus and making sure I was executing down, making sure I was not drifting. Just like little things, those mental cues that will allow me to execute good pitches. My mental cue today was to make sure my hands were synced up with the rest of my body.”

"His fastball was great," d'Arnaud said. "That first at-bat, I think my knuckles are still at the plate from getting jammed so bad on that heater. I think I just got lucky to be able to get a pitch to hit that one at-bat. I thought he mixed speeds really well and commanded his fastball really well. He’s been a tremendous pitcher for them all year, and I think he will be for a long time coming."

López started off by fanning Acuña on three pitches. It was the first of three times he struck out the Braves’ young star, who was at the center of drama on Tuesday in Atlanta’s 9-5 win in Game 1. Acuña homered to lead off that game, then he was hit by a pitch from Sandy Alcantara in his next at-bat. Warnings were issued to both benches.

Afterwards, Acuña took to social media and stated that the Marlins were hitting him because they couldn’t get him out. On Wednesday, Acuña fanned four times, with the fourth coming in the eighth inning against Brandon Kintzler.

“It’s just a matter of executing,” López said. “It doesn’t matter what happened yesterday or what happened the day before; what was said, what wasn’t said. Have your plan, execute it. Obviously, we have a job to do. There’s different ways to go about that.”

While López certainly could have enjoyed a better fate, Anderson fanned eight Marlins in 5 2/3 scoreless innings.

“Power is something that plays in the postseason, and it was with us today,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “It’s a deep lineup. A lot of guys can do damage, and they have. Today, too. We made some really good defensive plays.”

Swanson and d’Arnaud each went deep for the second game in a row. In the second inning, Swanson opened the scoring with a shot projected by Statcast at 403 feet, with an exit velocity of 101.9 mph. It came on a 94.7 mph four-seam fastball.

In the fourth inning, d’Arnaud hit a home run to left on a changeup. The no-doubter traveled 405 feet at 109.9 mph. The changeup is López’s best pitch. During the regular season, he allowed one home run on 270 changeups across his 11 starts.

The Marlins had chances to break through in the sixth and eighth innings. Jon Berti singled off Anderson and reliever Darren O’Day hit Brian Anderson with a pitch before walking Garrett Cooper to load the bases. But with two outs, Matt Joyce grounded to first on the first pitch.

In the eighth, Corey Dickerson reached on an error, and then Miami got a bad break on Berti’s blooper that dropped in short right field. Unsure if the ball would be caught, Dickerson was thrown out at second by right fielder Nick Markakis. Instead of two on and no outs, the Marlins had a man on first and one out, and they were unable to do any damage.

“Markakis, obviously, is a very good right fielder, was coming in hard,” Berti said. “I hit a little higher than obviously I would have liked, and it kind of hung up there. I didn’t know if he was going to catch it or not, either. He was coming in hard and unfortunately, he made a nice play on us there to get the out there. But the last thing Corey wants is for him to make that catch and then double him off at first, so really tough read. It’s just tough right there.”