CLEVELAND — Heading into Saturday’s doubleheader, Miami Marlins manager Skip Schumaker was asked if there were any positive on playing two games in a day this early in a season.
Schumaker took a second to mull over his thoughts before coming up with his answer.
“Everybody’s gonna play. That’s for sure,” Schumaker said. “You want to get guys, try to match up as best as you can, but on the flip side, you don’t want to kill guys over 18 innings. ... There are guys on the bench that get to play.”
Schumaker used everyone at his disposal across two games at Progressive Field.
In the end, it resulted in two wins over the Cleveland Guardians — 6-1 in the early game, 3-2 in the nightcap.
With that, the Marlins (12-9) have now won four consecutive series. They will look to get their first sweep when they wrap up their series against the Guardians (10-11) at 1:40 p.m. Sunday.
Here were five Marlins standouts from Saturday’s doubleheader:
— Bryan De La Cruz: The outfielder had five extra-base hits — four doubles, one home run — across the two games. De La Cruz is on a nine-game hitting streak, which ties the longest of his MLB career.
— Garrett Hampson: Hampson only played the second game of the doubleheader, but he was active throughout. He had two run-producing hits — an RBI double in the fourth and an RBI single in the sixth — and also scored in the sixth inning on a Garrett Cooper sacrifice fly while playing solid defense at shortstop.
— Devin Smeltzer: The left-handed pitcher started the first game of the doubleheader in place of Sandy Alcantara, whose start was skipped as he deals with mild right biceps tendinitis. Smeltzer threw four innings of one-run ball before handing things over to his bullpen. This came after Smeltzer gave up a pair of two-run home runs on Wednesday.
— Braxton Garrett: Garrett held the Guardians to just one run over 5 2/3 innings. After giving up a two-out RBI single to Oscar Gonzalez in the first, Garrett proceeded to retire 10 consecutive Cleveland hitters and 15 of the final 18 batters he faced overall. Through four outings (three starts) this season, Garrett has a 2.84 ERA.
— The bullpen: The Marlins used all seven of their main relievers across both games. Andrew Nardi (1 1/3 innings), Huascar Brazoban (1 2/3 innings), Matt Barnes (one inning) and Steven Okert (one inning) combined for five scoreless innings in Game 1, while Tanner Scott (2/3 innings), Dylan Floro (1 2/3 innings) and A.J. Puk (one inning) held Cleveland to just one run over 3 1/3 innings.
That’s one run over 8 1/3 innings from Miami’s relievers on Saturday, for those keeping track.
Dating back to April 11, the Marlins’ bullpen has held opponents to six earned runs over 41 innings — good for a 1.32 ERA.
