Bad bounces, breaks doom Marlins

ATLANTA -- A wild and unconventional set of circumstances put an end to the string of 10 scoreless innings by the Marlins’ bullpen and denied Miami its first series win of the season.

With the game on the line in the ninth inning Sunday, manager Don Mattingly pulled out all the stops, employing a fifth infielder and one fewer outfielder. Still, Dansby Swanson found an unoccupied patch of outfield grass to deposit his walk-off single that lifted the Braves to a 4-3 victory over the Marlins at SunTrust Park.

Before Swanson’s heroics, the Marlins tied it in the ninth on Curtis Granderson’s pinch-hit home run. But in the Braves’ half of the inning, the breaks, and the timely hit, went Atlanta’s way against left-hander Adam Conley.

“There's a game plan going into it, but at the end of the day, it comes down to us executing,” Conley said.

It started when Freddie Freeman, who hit a two-run homer in the first inning, reached on an infield single off Conley’s glove. Had Conley not swiped behind him, the ball appeared headed for a Miami infielder.

Matters got worse when Ronald Acuna Jr. reached on a catcher’s interference call against Chad Wallach. The Marlins felt that earlier in the count, first-base umpire Joe West missed a swing on an appeal.

“I didn't feel like I was any closer than I was the rest of the game,” Wallach said of Acuna’s bat hitting his glove. “But, obviously, on the inside pitch, I was a little too close to him, and it hit my glove.”

Mattingly said the at-bat to Acuna changed on the check swing that was called a ball.

“Basically, they catch a break with Acuna,” Mattingly said. “He's swinging, [a] full swing almost on the check swing.”

The inning deteriorated even further on a passed ball by Wallach, putting runners on the corners with no outs. Mattingly went with a fifth infielder, moving right fielder Rosell Herrera (a natural infielder) in to play close to second base.

“In that spot, I think like a second baseman,” Herrera said. “I've done that before. It's not hard.”

With Nick Markakis at the plate, Conley didn’t give in, going with a full-count changeup for ball four, loading the bases.

“If I'm in a situation where I have more infielders than there are supposed to be, then I don't want the guy to hit the ball,” Conley said. “In those situations, you see me pitching out of the zone, expanding the zone. Throwing breaking balls. Throwing changeups, 3-2 to Markakis. I don't want him to hit the ball.”

With two outfielders shifted toward the gaps, Swanson lined his walk-off single to left.

After dropping the series, the Marlins fell to 3-7, with two one-run losses and one two-run setback.

To Conley, the record doesn’t indicate how well the Marlins have played.

“You look at teams around baseball right now that people have predicted, unanimously, as good teams. And their record doesn't reflect the team they are,” Conley said. “I think we fit into that category. I know a lot of people don't give us the credit that I think we deserve, as far as our talent and everything. But I think the quality of baseball that we've played isn't reflected in our record in wins and losses.”

Double long-ball trouble
Compiling impressive strikeout numbers has become common for Caleb Smith. It was more of the same on Sunday as the Marlins left-hander struck out seven in six innings.

More unusual is the 27-year-old getting beaten by the long ball. For just the second time in his career as a starter, he yielded two home runs in one game.

Smith surrendered Freeman's homer in the first inning and Swanson's solo shot with two outs in the fourth.

“The one to Freeman was just a bad location on my part. It was away,” Smith said. “I should have pounded him in. A dumb pitch on my part. The one to Swanson, I thought it was a good changeup down and away. He just went down and got it. I'll give him that one. But the one to Freeman, it shouldn't happen. Got to be smarter.”

In his second season with the Marlins, Smith is emerging as a tough pitcher to make solid contact off of. He struck out eight in five innings in his season debut against the Mets on Monday.

Smith pitched 77 1/3 innings for the Marlins last year before suffering a left lat tear that required surgery on July 9. In 16 starts, the lefty allowed two home runs once, on June 2 at Arizona. Paul Goldschmidt and David Peralta did the damage that day.