Fernandez, who improved to 22-1 at home and lowered his season ERA to 2.53, exited after the seventh inning with the Marlins leading 3-0.
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“He was jamming his fastball inside on the glove side”, Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said of Conley’s effectiveness. “He wants to pitch the whole game every game and he was at a pitch count tonight where you’re comfortable letting him go out”.
That escape allowed the attention to go back to Fernandez, 23, who got the best of Gerrit Cole, 25, in a battle of hard-throwing young right-handers who have already made one All-Star Game each. “Any less than that is not a quality outing”.
Christian Yelich had a tiebreaking RBI single in the seventh, J.T. Realmuto had three hits for the Marlins, and A.J. Ramos pitched a shaky ninth for his 16th save. This double scored Rojas to give the Marlins a 3-2 lead that would hold up.
“That fifth inning snowballed and a lot of things didn’t go our way”, Niese said.
The Marlins broke a scoreless tie with three runs in the seventh inning.
Cervelli walked three times, including one to open the ninth inning, but the rest of the inning was rather uneventful, with Sean Rodriguez Sean Rodriguez swinging at A.J. Ramos’ offerings at his ankles.
Hechavarria was unable to give the Marlins an early lead, but he delivered when it mattered most.
Hechavarria had been 0 for his previous 10 at-bats before his game-winning double. Watson then got ahead of Derek Dietrich 0-2, and then the wheels came off.
Justin Bour did hit a ground ball on the first pitch he saw, but beat the throw to first base putting the third and final Marlins run on the scoreboard.
“Jose was a really good again today”, Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “Obviously a huge hit for us at that point”. The Ohio native allowed one run and seven hits in six innings at Texas on Friday to pick up a win after being left out of the decision following seven dominant innings against Colorado on May 21.
“Pretty good”, Mattingly said. “I think we see every time out”. Gregory Polanco, who hit a grand slam in Monday’s 10-0 win, hit a sacrifice fly to deep center field to cut the deficit to 3-1. “That’s what we’ve been doing all year”.
Conley’s average of 14.19 baserunners allowed per nine innings is among the highest in the majors. Niese is 6-5 with a 4.18 ERA in 18 career starts against the Marlins. Joyce delivered a two-run single to right off Mike Dunn, who was making his season debut after a forearm injury that kept him on the disabled list until this week.
Pittsburgh’s Josh Harrison is batting.480 during an eight-game hitting streak.
Tony Watson’s 0-2 pitch hit Dietrich on the wrist.
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“Oh my gosh, get behind home plate and watch it”, Hurdle said. “He felt like something happened right away. Usually guys hang in there and say, ‘Wait, wait, ‘ but he knew something right away, which is not great, but hopefully we get some good news.”. Marlins RHP Bryan Morris had back surgery on Wednesday, and the best-case scenario is him returning in September. “It was a really big lift for us”, Phelps said. Nicasio is 1-2 with a 6.75 ERA in his last four starts. Chen threw the ball well in a 7-2 loss at Atlanta last time out with a run allowed on two hits in five frames.
