Miami Marlins links, 6/19/18: New interviews, same ol’ comebacks against the Giants

They should play the Giants more often!

Their previous series against them was characterized by exciting comebacks, but this one on Monday night takes the cake. The Marlins lineup rallied against Giants closer Hunter Strickland in the ninth inning, turning a 4-2 deficit into a 5-4 thriller.

Fish Stripes original GIF

Nearly everybody got involved. Brian Anderson and J.T. Realmuto, of course, but how about Lewis Brinson with a nice piece of hitting after falling behind in the count!

This continues a trend for the rookie center fielder, who’s been among Miami’s offensive leaders during their most competitive stretch of the season.

Minor league scoreboard

Triple-A: Sacramento 4, New Orleans 7 (34-36)

High-A: Florida 7, Jupiter 0 (39-28)

Short Season A: West Virginia 6, Batavia 9 (2-2)

Gulf Coast League: GCL Marlins 6 (1-0), GCL Nationals 3

Dominican Summer League: DSL Marlins 2 (6-8), DSL Red Sox1 5

June 18 box scores courtesy of MiLB.com

Taking the mound soon?

Photo by Mercyhurst Athletic Communications/Ed Mailliar

The Marlins waited until the fifth round of the 2018 draft to find pitching reinforcements, and certainly went off the beaten path to address that position: right-hander Chris Vallimont from Division II Mercyhurst University.

I had an exclusive interview with Vallimont immediately after he signed his professional contract. We discussed the huge strides he made from high school to college, his determination to make it as a starter and an introduction to Erie, Pennsylvania.

Fans are dumb

What an embarrassing situation. With only a couple weeks of MLB All-Star balloting remaining, the National League’s best catcher is still getting no love.

(Don’t be too outraged, though: he’ll very likely make the roster as a reserve.)

Rich Waltz reflects on 13 Marlins seasons

The beloved television broadcaster joined Ethan Skolnick and Chris Wittyngham on the Five Reasons podcast. Memories of Miggy, Hanley, D-Train, Uggla and more during the hour-long conversation.

The Fish, unfortunately, never had a playoff run with Waltz in the booth (2005-2017). He explained the mindset needed to cover a team like that:

“Many of those times in those spring trainings when you had young teams that were ‘rebuilding’ or ‘reloading’ or however you want to say it, you went in with the idea, not so much of, ‘Boy, I hope these guys make the playoffs’...you go into that spring training—at least I did—‘how can I make the telecast fun,’ ‘how can I make the telecast good.’”

And he provided an update on his current gigs with Facebook, CBS and Turner.

Back in action at AT&T

Dan Straily and Dereck Rodríguez face each other again on Tuesday night. They’re probably rooting for it to take fewer than 16 innings this time.

First pitch will be approximately 10:15pm ET.