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Source: FanGraphs
Attendance: 38,441
Hero of the Game: Nathan Eovaldi (0.147 WPA)
Goat of the Game: Giancarlo Stanton (-0.034 WPA)
Play of the Game: Jeff Maths homered in the second inning. (+0.106 WPA)
The Miami Marlins had a rare complete performance in their 7-0 victory over the Atlanta Braves. The Fish got a top-notch performance out of Nathan Eovaldi, and the offense came out on fire with seven runs, all of which came within the first three innings against Alex Wood and the Braves.
Eovaldi shut down Atlanta through eight innings while recording six strikeouts and two walks. He got 14 swings-and-misses out of 102 pitches, meaning his stuff was working against a strikeout-prone Braves lineup. The fastball was, as expected, electric, as it averaged 97.9 mph and hit 100 mph a few times on the evening. Eovaldi's strikeouts, however, also came a couple times on his backup sliders or curves that hung up and in and fooled hitters. Five of his 14 whiffs came from the breaking pitches, and while he was still largely dependent on the fastball, this was a better outing for his secondary stuff
Of course, the Fish did not need Eovaldi to be that good, because they finally gave him some run support for a change. Miami got Eovaldi seven runs, all off of Braves starter Alex Wood, who lasted only 2 1/3 innings. Wood was particularly beaten up by Jeff Mathis, who homered in the second inning to make it 2-0 and doubled in the third to drive home the Marlins' final sixth and seventh runs. In between, the Fish were able to manufacture a five-run third inning off of singles and walks, as six of the first seven hitters reached base with those events before Mathis's double. By the time Wood was pulled, the Marlins had appeared to seal a commanding lead.
The only Marlins starters without a hit were Giancarlo Stanton and Eovaldi. Stanton went 0-for-4 and was replaced by the returning Chris Coghlan late in the game.
The Fish will start a three-game set versus the Chicago Cubs on Monday, signaling the final out-of-division series before the last one of the season against the Detroit Tigers.