Marlins slug three homers, flash leather in support of Rogers

Lefty becomes first Marlins starter to record a win since June 11

July 27th, 2024

MILWAUKEE -- About a month and a half ago when the Marlins were reeling, manager Skip Schumaker spoke to his club about its demeanor.

“He was talking about being an inflator,” veteran said. “Sometimes when you're losing, you're negative. It's easy to bring other people down with you. So he's like, ‘When you're going through a slump, I want you to be the loudest guy on the bench, cheering for everybody else.’ So it's just something that's kind of stuck for us.”

It’s no coincidence the Marlins’ new celebration mimics raising the roof. There was plenty of that on Friday night after Bell, Bryan De La Cruz and Jake Burger each went deep in support of lefty Trevor Rogers in the Marlins’ 6-2 victory over the Brewers, improving Miami to 5-3 in the second half against a trio of contending clubs.

Bell’s fourth homer in his last eight games, a ninth-inning solo shot, was a milestone one: his 1,000th career hit. Postgame, Jazz Chisholm Jr. doused him with a Gatorade bath. Upon his return to the clubhouse, Bell received requests of a speech, which he indulged.

“For us to keep playing like we're playing against these really good teams just shows what they have in the clubhouse, [and it] should start building some confidence that they can play with anybody,” Schumaker said. “And it starts with starting pitching. Trevor Rogers was outstanding, again. [He] didn't walk anybody, only struck out one guy, but the defense played really well behind him.”

Rogers allowed two runs over 5 1/3 innings to become the first Marlins starter to win a game since Jesús Luzardo did so on June 11. Rogers has not allowed more than three runs in any of his last nine starts (3.17 ERA).

During that dubious stretch, Miami was the only club without a starting pitcher recording a win -- a club-record 37 games. Their innings per start (4.81) and ERA (5.31) ranked 27th and 26th, respectively, which isn’t exactly a winning formula.

“I had no idea until one of the coaches told me, so we were getting up there,” Rogers said. “I'm glad that's back at zero.”

That was made possible by Rogers’ defense playing one of its cleanest games of the season.

Leaping center fielder Nick Gordon robbed Willy Adames with a running grab to open the second. Catcher Nick Fortes caught Jackson Chourio attempting to steal in the third. De La Cruz threw out a runner trying for second to end the fifth. Right fielder Jesús Sánchez made a jumping catch at the wall for the second out of the seventh. Shortstop Xavier Edwards made a nice pick in the eighth.

Miami also handed Rogers, who entered the series opener with the worst run support (2.55 per game) among Major Leaguers with at least 10 starts, an early 5-0 cushion.

De La Cruz knocked a two-run homer and Burger added a solo shot in the first inning, before Miami added two more runs in the second thanks to a two-out rally.

After Fortes singled and Chisholm and Edwards walked to load the bases, De La Cruz sent a chopper to shortstop Adames, who bobbled the grounder. Two runs came home on the play, as Chisholm used his near-elite sprint speed (29.8 ft/sec) to score all the way from second.

The Marlins have scored six or more runs in four straight for the first time since Aug. 31-Sept. 6 of last year, batting .285/.340/.453 over that span.

Rogers surrendered a leadoff homer to Rhys Hoskins in the third and a sacrifice fly to Gary Sánchez in the fourth. Schumaker later pulled Rogers in the sixth with a runner at second and All-Star catcher William Contreras at the plate in favor of Anthony Bender, who promptly recorded the next five outs -- the most in an outing since Sept. 5, 2021.

Righty Huascar Brazoban and All-Star closer Tanner Scott tossed a scoreless eighth and ninth, respectively, in Miami’s first game since the trade of lefty A.J. Puk.

“We have two guys like the sparks of the lineup, which [are] Jazz and Xavier,” De La Cruz said via interpreter Luis Dorante Jr. “When they get on base, it's something that motivates everybody. You don’t know exactly what they're going to do on the bases, it’s incredible. After that, you can have Bell, or you can have me, or you can have Sánchez trying to get them and just score, which is the most important, so it's been working.”