Heroes and Zeroes: Padres 3, Marlins 2

Heroes and Zeroes is a series where I use the Wins Expectancy Added (WPA) metric to measure each players impact (both positive and negative) on the outcome of a ballgame. Events are broken down and weighted by specific situation, and WPA is awarded or penalized depending on the outcome of that situation. Players are ranked from highest positive impact to highest negative impact. The top three are the Heroes, the bottom three Zeroes. All too often these days, the Marlins find themselves on the bottom of the pack, and today's contest was no different.

Heroes

Odrisamer Despaigne (SD) .148

Despaigne started for the Padres and didn't allow a hit until the fifth inning. He pitched six innings in total, allowing two hits (to JT Realmuto and Miguel Rojas, both in the fifth), two walks and a hit batter. He struck out three and allowed one earned run.

Justin Upton (SD) .134

Upton batted cleanup for San Diego, and led off the second with a solo home run (+13.6%). He led off the fourth with a strikeout (-1.0%), hit a two-out single in the sixth (+0.5%), and drew a two out walk with a runner on third in the eighth (+0.3%).

Craig Kimbrel (SD) .123

Kimbrel took the hill in the ninth to shut down the Marlins. He got Casey McGehee to fly out to second (+5.8%), Derek Dietrich to fly out to center (+3.8%), and "Almost Hero" JT Realmuto to ground out to shortstop to end the game (+2.6%).

Almost Heroes

JT Realmuto (MIA) .114

Miguel Rojas (MIA) .106

Joaquin Benoit (SD) .098

Bryan Morris (MIA) .046

Jedd Gyorko (SD) .037

Michael Morse (MIA) .023

Minimal Impact

Yangervis Solarte (SD) .020

Alexi Amarista (SD) .017

Will Venable (SD) .016

Yonder Alonso (SD) .012

Adeiny Hechavarria (MIA) .000

Matt Kemp (SD) -.006

Abraham Almonte (SD) -.006

Almost Zeroes

Brett Maurer (SD) -.042

Derek Norris (SD) -.048

Casey McGehee (MIA) -.073

Derek Dietrich (MIA) -.075

Justin Bour (MIA) -.077

Christian Yelich (MIA) -.095

Zeroes

Ichiro Suzuki (MIA) -.111

Suzuki led off for the Marlins, grounding out to shortstop to open the game (-2.0%). He grounded out with a man on second for the second out of the third inning (-3.4%), then hit an RBI sacrifice fly to left field to score JT Realmuto in the fifth (-1.8%). He flew out to right field with a man on first to end the Marlins seventh (-4.0%). He went 0-for-14 through the four game series.

Martin Prado (MIA) -.141

Prado batted second for the Marlins. He grounded to shortstop for the second out of the game (-1.3%), struck out to end the third with a man on third (-3.4%), flew out to right with a runner on second to end the fifth (-4.7%), then grounded out to open the eighth (-4.7%).

Mat Latos (MIA) -.217

The towering right-hander went into the game hoping to increase his trade value. Despite taking the loss and ending up on the bottom of this list, Latos faced the minimum amount of batters in four of his six innings pitched, at one point retiring 11 Padres in a row. He allowed six hits and zero walks, striking out five and giving up all three runs on the night. This outing was the book definition of a "Quality Start."

The Marlins finally head home for a nine-game home stand starting Tuesday night at 7:10PM against the Washington Nationals.