Heroes And Zeroes: Marlins 5, Red Sox 4

Heroes and Zeroes is a series where I use the Wins Probability Added (WPA) metric available at www.fangraphs.com (source here) to rate each players' contribution to the ultimate outcome of their current contest. Players are ranked from highest positive impact to the highest negative impact. The three on top are your Heroes, the three at the end are the Zeroes.

Heroes

Dee Gordon (MIA).271

Gordon batted first for the Marlins and led off the bottom half of the second with an infield groundout (-2.1%). He struck out on four pitches to open the fourth (-2.7%) and grounded out to second base to lead off the fifth (-3.0%). In the sixth, he hit a two-out RBI-single to center field (+7.8%), scoring Ichiro Suzuki for Miami's second run of the night. After grounding out for the second out of the eighth (-4.3%), Gordon would triple to left to lead off the 10th (+30.2%).

Mookie Betts (BOS) .192

Gordon's Red Sox' counterpart, Mookie Betts, opened the contest by singling to center off Florida starter Justin Nicolino (+3.6%). He knocked in Boston's first run of the night with a one-out, RBI-single to right field, scoring Jackie Bradley Jr. in the third (+6.7%), then stole second base (+1.7%). He hit a two-out RBI-double down the line in the fifth, again scoring Bradley with Boston's second run (+12.2%). With one out in the seventh, Betts flew out to right (-1.0%), then grounded out in his final plate appearance for the second out of the 10th (-4.1%).

Justin Bour (MIA) .173

Bour, batting cleanup for the Marlins, opened the second inning with a five-pitch strikeout (-2.1%). He hit a two-out single with a man on first in the third (+2.5%), drew a two out walk with a runner on third in the fifth (+2.0%), then drew a walk in the seventh with no outs and a man on first (+10.7%). After grounding out with two runners on to end the eighth (-11.8%), Bour ended the game by singling in Dee Gordon with a walk off hit (+16.2%) in the bottom of the 10th. Despite the attached picture, he did not get a Gatorade shower, but did get like 35 water bottles dumped on him.

Almost Heroes

Jean Machi (BOS) .133

Alexi Ogando (BOS) .133

Bryan Morris (MIA) .128

Steven Wright (BOS) .124

Ichiro Suzuki (MIA) .121

Jackie Bradley Jr. (BOS) .116

Martin Prado (MIA) .097

JT Realmuto (MIA) .097

Cole Gillespie (MIA) .058

Minimal Impact

Kendrys Flores (BOS) .050

AJ Ramos (MIA) .033

Mike Dunn (MIA) .025

Rusney Castillo (BOS) .012

Kyle Barraclough (MIA) .010

Ryan Cook (BOS) .001

Xander Bogaerts (BOS) -.007

Casey McGehee (MIA) -.011

Alejandro De Aza (BOS) -.014

Derek Dietrich (MIA) -.033

Almost Zeroes

Adeiny Hechavarria (MIA) -.039

Blake Swihart (BOS) -.056

Travis Shaw (BOS) -.056

Miguel Rojas (MIA) -.061

Brock Holt (BOS) -.063

Pedro Sandoval (BOS) -.088

David Ortiz (BOS) -.088

Tomas Telis (MIA) -.121

Tom Layne (BOS) -.173

Zeroes

Justin Nicolino (MIA) -.238

Nicolino, a new part of Miami's patchwork rotation, made the third start of his major league career. He went 5.2 innings and allowed ALL of Boston's baserunners, on nine hits and a walk. He left the game in the sixth with two outs, a four run deficit, and a man on third. He did not strike any Red Sox out and went 0-for-2 from the plate. Still, he didn't look that bad through the first five innings, allowing two runs on five hits over the span.

Junichi Tazawa (BOS) -.316

Tazawa came on to nail down the save for Boston in the ninth inning with a one-run lead. After getting Cole Gillespie to fly out (+8.3%), he allowed singles to JT Realmuto (-9.4%) and Ichiro Suzuki (-12.4%). Suzuki advanced to second on a wild pitch (-20.8%), then Adeiny Hechavarria hit the game tying RBI with a sacrifice fly (-9.4%). Tazawa got Tomas Telis to ground out to end the inning (+12.1%).

Craig Breslow (BOS) -.372

Breslow pitched the 10th for the Red Sox, then allowed Dee Gordon a leadoff triple (-30.2%). He intentionally walked Martin Prado (-0.4%) and struck out Derek Dietrich (+8.4%), then gave up the walkoff RBI single to Justin Bour (-16.2%).

Check back tonight for another round of interleague play against Stephen King's favorite team.