Marlins' offense awakens, overwhelms Scherzer

MIAMI -- A reason the Marlins dismissed Mike Pagliarulo as hitting coach late Friday night was to provide a different voice to a sluggish offense. The message was heard loud and clear by the players on Saturday night as they responded with perhaps their best team approach of the season.

Curtis Granderson belted a home run and Brian Anderson chipped in with two doubles and an RBI, and with production up-and-down the lineup, the Marlins grinded out a 9-3 victory against the Nationals.

The Marlins claimed their first series win of the season, and got the best of one of the best in the business. They tagged Max Scherzer for seven runs, with six earned, on 11 hits.

“With the stuff that he has, you can't just let him continue to keep pounding the zone and throwing strikes,” Anderson said. “You've got to kind of take it to him a little bit, and show him you are there to put the ball in play and drive the ball. We did a great job as a team in doing that.”

With a batting order that doesn’t have a bona fide power threat, the Marlins are aiming to have a collective approach. They showed it in interim hitting coach Jeff Livesey’s first game.

“Sometimes with young hitters you get pitched tough, and guys get in-between pitches, and get kind of careful,” Livesey said before the game. “We want to get to the point, we hunt our pitches. Good hitters hunt what they want to hit. When they get it, they take aggressive swings. That’s what we want to work towards. If they make two good pitches on us, we still have got something we can go to with two strikes. We can battle, and still be tough outs.”

Miami entered the game last in the Majors in runs scored with 51.

"This is big league baseball," Scherzer said. "If you don’t bring your 'A' game, you get beat. And tonight, I didn't bring my 'A' game. I got beat."

In their 11-hit attack, the Marlins were on the attack from the beginning. In their two-run first inning, Anderson’s double and Starlin Castro’s RBI single both came on first pitches.

“We were aggressive, because we're not going to hit a homer all the time,” Castro said. “We're trying to get on base, and keep the line moving.”

Anderson had a big night in his first game in right field, after he played exclusively at third base in the first 20 games. Martin Prado stepped in at third base, and had a single and scored in the third inning.

Granderson’s home run came in the fifth inning, and in the sixth inning, Miami exploited its speed. Isaac Galloway had a double that put runners on second and third, and two runs scored on pinch-hitter Rosell Herrera’s tapped single in front of the plate. Scherzer tried to make a play at the plate on Miguel Rojas, but the ball went beyond catcher Yan Gomes. On the error, Rojas and Galloway both scored, and Herrera, credited with a single, advanced to second.

Herrera ended up scoring from second on Granderson’s sacrifice fly to center. Victor Robles made the catch at the wall. Statcast projected the drive at 401 feet. As Robles crashed into the wall, Herrera was in full flight, scoring from second without a serious play.

Per Statcast, Robles made a four-star catch, with a 45 percent catch probability. Herrera’s sprint speed was 28.5 feet per second. The MLB average is 27 ft./sec.

“In that situation, I know Robles is a very good center fielder,” Herrera said. “He's aggressive. When I saw he caught it, and he hit the wall, I knew I had a chance to score.”

The Marlins had two steals, and in the eighth inning, the speed and aggressiveness of Jon Berti helped manufacture another run. Berti made his Marlins debut, having his contract selected from Triple-A New Orleans earlier in the day.

Berti drew a pinch-hit walk, and was safe at second on Prado’s fielder’s choice grounder to third. He went in low to the ground, and hard to second base, nearly knocking over second baseman Brian Dozier. Berti took third on a wild pitch and scored on Neil Walker’s fielder’s choice.

“The play at second, I just tried to stay low, slide right into the bag,” Berti said. “Fortunately, he was OK, and we kind of bumped into each other a little bit.”

A small-ball mentality will be important as the club tries to find an offensive identity.

“Hopefully that speed just kind of continues to show itself,” manager Don Mattingly said. “We steal a bag in a situation when the pitcher is bunting, put pressure [on] and get a guy in scoring position. Things like that are going to be important for us.”