Marlins Fatigue Persists, Yet Maintain Control Over Postseason Destiny

The Miami Marlins looked like an exhausted team for seven innings. Even being in the final days of a pennant race couldn’t stir them.

Yet it was completely understandable. After all, the Marlins didn’t arrive in Pittsburgh until after 4 a.m. Friday following a long and frustrating night in New York.

On Thursday night, the Marlins scored two runs in the top of the ninth inning to move in front of the Mets 2-1 at Citi Field. However, then came the rain and the game was eventually suspended at 12:58 a.m. following a delay of three hours and 16 minutes.

Most of the Marlins players didn’t get to bed until 6 a.m. and they had to be back at the ballpark by mid-afternoon to prepare for a 6:35 p.m. game with the Pirates at PNC Park.

“We tried to get as much rest as we got and drink a lot of coffee,” Marlins third baseman Jake Burger said with a smile. “A lot of coffee.”

However, it seemed like the caffeine wasn’t going to kick in for the Marlins. Going into the eighth inning, they trailed 3-0.

Then Josh Bell became the human energy drink when he belted a two-run double in the eighth. Burger followed with a tying single and the Marlins went ahead on Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s sacrifice fly.

The Marlins had quickly turned the 3-0 deficit into a 4-3 lead and the score ended up that way as they continued to control their fate in the jumbled race for the last two National League wild cards.

The Arizona Diamondbacks hold a half-game lead over the Marlins for the second wild card. The Marlins are 1 ½ games ahead of the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds for the third wild card and have a magic number of one for clinching a playoff berth.

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The Marlins can punch their ticket to the postseason Saturday night when they again face the Pirates.

It was quite a performance considering that Thursday’s long night was just part of a bizarre three days for the Marlins in New York. The scheduled series opener on Tuesday night was postponed because of poor field conditions after the Citi Field grounds crew left the field uncovered for a time while Tropical Storm Ophelia hit New York. The postponement necessitated a doubleheader on Wednesday night.

Yet the Marlins persevered Friday on a night in which they could have checked out early and instead looked ahead to a full night’s sleep and a chance to regroup Saturday.

“I don’t even know what to say,” Marlins first-year manager Skip Shumaker said. “I’m not surprised, though, because our guys always find a way.”

The Marlins have prided themselves on resiliency all season, which is why Chisholm never doubted they could win Friday night.

“Right before the (decisive eighth) inning, I was just telling them like, ‘Three (runs) ain’t nothing to us. We’ve been doing this all year,’” Chisholm said. “It just starts off with one guy getting on, and we just come back as a team. This is the most contagious team in the league, I feel like. If one guy gets on, we’ve got something going, and we can do it all day.”

The Marlins are one win away from going from a contagious team to a playoff team. Except for a berth in the expanded playoffs during the 2020 pandemic-affected season, the Marlins haven’t been to the postseason since knocking off the New York Yankees in the 2003 World Series.

Expectations were very high for the Marlins coming into this season, but Shumaker knows anything can happen in baseball. He played for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2011 when they didn’t qualify for the postseason until the last day of the regular season but then went on to win the World Series.

“I’ve said it before, meaningful games right now are important for that clubhouse and for this organization,” Schumaker said. “We talked about it in spring training. We weren’t going after a winning record. We were going after, ‘Get in the playoffs and see what happens.’

“We’re getting closer, but we’re not there yet. So, no one’s popping anything in there yet. This game is wild, the season’s crazy. Nothing about it makes sense, really. So that’s why I’m just day to day and hope to win tomorrow.”