Marlins’ Pablo Lopez didn’t give in after rough first inning vs Padres. It led to a career night
Don Mattingly said pregame Saturday, somewhat jokingly, that he wanted nine innings out of Pablo Lopez.
It was a far-reaching goal. Lopez has been great to start this season for the Miami Marlins, one of the best starting pitchers in baseball, but he has yet to throw a complete game in his MLB career. In reality, Mattingly just wanted Lopez to provide a quality start.
That said, Lopez came close to fulfilling his manager’s request. He threw eight shutout innings, tying for the longest outing of his MLB career, as Miami beat the San Diego Padres 8-0 at Petco Park to snap a six-game losing streak and retake his spot as Major League Baseball’s ERA leader at 1.00 through six starts.
“He’s gotta feel good about that,” Mattingly said.
His performance very well could have been overshadowed on a night that featured heroics and big moments from the offense — most notably Joe Dunand hitting a home run in his first career MLB at-bat and Jorge Soler capping scoring with a ninth-inning grand slam to hopefully help break out of an early-season funk.
But make no mistake about it: Lopez’s performance was just as, if not more, important.
He rebounded from a 19-pitch first inning to match the longest outing of his MLB career — also done June 8, 2021, against the Colorado Rockies.
He gave the bullpen a much needed day of rest as the Marlins get into the back stretch of this run of 16 consecutive games without a day off. Miami wraps up its series against the Padres at 4:10 p.m. Sunday before closing the road trip with a three-game set against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
And he was able to shake off his one shaky performance of the season — four runs (three earned) over 4 2/3 innings against the Diamondbacks — to help the Marlins snap their six-game losing streak, a run that included a franchise-record five consecutive one-run losses.
“It’s huge,” Lopez said. “Obviously the way we were losing games, they were close games. We were in every single one of them, so we knew we have what it to takes to go out there and perform that way.”
For Lopez specifically, that meant finding a way to push through after a rough first inning. He loaded the bases on a pair of singles by Jake Cronenworth and Manny Machado and a four-pitch walk to Jurickson Profar before getting Trent Grisham to pop out to Miguel Rojas to strand all three runners.
Lopez only allowed three batters to reach base the rest of the night and just one to get into scoring position. He threw no more than 14 pitches in a given inning from the second to eighth, including a seven-pitch fifth inning and an eight-pitch eighth inning to cap his night.
“I was able to keep that mentality of not giving in that [first] inning,” Lopez said. “It really helped me for the next inning. I was able to walk out of that inning with that lineup and that situation. That gave me a little boost of confidence.”
In addition to his 1.00 ERA — the second-best mark in Marlins history through six starts, behind only Josh Johnson’s 0.88 mark in 2011 — Lopez is holding opponents to a .186 batting average against and is the only pitcher so far this season to have thrown at least six shutout innings on at least three separate occasions.
He is getting national recognition now, with MLB’s main Twitter account heaping praise on him after his outing Saturday.
And while Lopez appreciates the acknowledgment, he tries not to focus on it.
“It’s one of those things that if you’re able to perform on a consistent basis, you’ll see that outside noise,” Lopez said. “It’s one of those things that it’s nice to have, but it shouldn’t alter the way that we prepare, the way that we approach the game. I know that my only focus when I’m on the mound is to try to execute pitches and give the team a chance, and I think having that mentality really helps me.”
