Two rookies lead the way as the Miami Marlins beat the New York Mets and Jacob deGrom

The Miami Marlins entered Saturday’s game against the New York Mets needing a spark.

Two rookies provided just that.

Starting pitcher Trevor Rogers went toe-to-toe with two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom and second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a a solo home run off deGrom to give the Marlins an early lead in their 3-0 win at Citi Field, the Marlins’ first shutout victory of the year. Miami is now 2-6 on the season. The Mets are 2-3.

Trevor Rogers ‘grow right in front of our eyes’

Rogers, the Marlins’ No. 7 overall prospect according to MLB Pipeline, tied career highs of six innings pitched and 10 strikeouts while facing a potent Mets lineup.

He struck out Michael Conforto three times (all swinging). He struck out Pete Alonso and Jonathan Villar twice each (once looking and once swinging each). He struck out Brandon Nimmo (looking), Francisco Lindor (swinging) and Dominic Smith (swinging) once each.

“We’re seeing him kind of grow up right in front of our eyes,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said.

Rogers, a 6-5 lefty, threw 82 pitches (56 of which were strikes) and worked out of two jams with runners in scoring position with no outs.

In the first, Nimmo led off with a double and Lindor reached on a sacrifice bunt attempt when catcher Chad Wallach couldn’t field the ball. The inning ended with Lindor getting caught stealing second before Conforto and Alonso struck out on consecutive at-bats.

In the sixth, deGrom led off with an infield single and Nimmo worked a four-pitch walk to put runners on first and second. Rogers eliminated the threat by getting Lindor to fly out to center and, once again, striking out Conforto and Lindor.

deGrom was still impressive, too. He held the Marlins to five hits, did not walk a batter and struck out 14 over eight innings while averaging 99 mph with his four-seam fastball.

Miami is now 2-0 all-time when Rogers starts against deGrom at Citi Field.

“That’s definitely a good sign,” Rogers said. “He’s the best in baseball. You always have to bring your best and then some. Just to see that not only me but our whole team can go out and compete with the best just shows you how good we all are.”

Chisholm’s big hit

Chisholm’s solo home run in the second inning gave the Marlins all the run support they needed against one of baseball’s best pitchers. He turned on an 0-2 fastball from deGrom that registered at 100.4 mph and sent it 402 feet into the right-field seats.

“There are heavy 100 [mph pitches] and there are lighter [100 mph pitches],” Chisholm said, “and I felt like his was on the lighter side.”

Chisholm, the No. 63 overall prospect in MLB and No. 4 in the Marlins’ system, is the first player to ever hit a home run off deGrom on an 0-2 count. He’s also the 11th rookie to hit a home run off deGrom and third Marlins rookie to accomplish the feat (also Isan Diaz in 2019 and Brian Anderson in 2018).

Chisholm went into the at-bat knowing he was going to take the first pitch, which was a 100.2 mph fastball that hit the top of the zone. Chisholm swung and miss at a second fastball and then connected on the third pitch.

Chisholm’s thoughts as he rounded the bases?

“I was like ‘OK, I just hit a home off deGrom. That’s cool. Now, I’ve got to try and go do it again,’” Chisholm said. “I feel like my abilities allow me to hit a homer off anybody. My hands should be able to get to any ball I can swing at. I just felt like it was another pitcher out there but obviously it was the best pitcher in baseball.”

The Marlins added a pair of insurance runs in the ninth on RBI singles from Jesus Aguilar and Miguel Rojas.

Closer competition?

Yimi Garcia converted the Marlins’ first save of the season with a scoreless ninth inning after Dylan Floro and Richard Bleier threw scoreless seventh and eighth innings.

Anthony Bass had the team’s first two save opportunities of the season but failed to convert them.

Mattingly said any combination of Garcia, Bass, Floro and Bleier could get save opportunities moving forward.

“That’s going to give us a lot of options as we move forward,” Mattingly said.

Floro and Garcia have been the best of the two early this season. Floro, who has primarily pitched the seventh inning, has given up just one unearned run with five strikeouts against just one walk and one hit over 4 1/3 innings. Garcia gave up a solo home run in Miami’s 1-0 Opening Day loss to the Rays but has since thrown four shutout innings.

Sunday starter?

Mattingly did not announce a starter for Sunday’s series finale with the Mets. He said postgame Saturday that they are still “talking about some options” and hinted that they could potentially use an opener. While their names weren’t expressly said, John Curtiss and Paul Campbell would make the most sense in that situation.