López dominates Indians in 3-1 win

On a chilly Tuesday night in Cleveland, Marlins right-hander Pablo López dominated the Cleveland Indians, tossing 6 ¹⁄₃ innings of two-hit baseball, as the Marlins opened a tough six-game road trip with a surprising but important 3-1 victory.

• Pablo López: 6.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R (0 ER), 2 BB, 6 K (86 pitches)
• Carlos Carrasco: 4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K (62 pitches)

López battled shaky control at times, but showed filthy movement on both his fastball and changeup.

After being plagued by bad luck on balls in play for most of the season, the Marlins’ heavy shifting paid off, leading to several extra outs. Overall, López did not allow his first hit until José Ramírez smacked a one-out single to right field in the bottom of the sixth. Nice change of pace for a talented young arm coming off three consecutive losses. This strong effort improved his earned run average to a respectable 4.44.

In the top of the fourth, Carlos Carrasco—on a simple ground ball play—collided with Neil Walker at first base. Carrasco originally remained in the game, but the Indians went to their rested bullpen beginning the next inning.

The Marlins had been shut out in six of their first 22 games thus far in 2019. However, they avoided that fate on Tuesday by breaking out the bats to open the fifth.

Catcher Jorge Alfaro belted a solo home run, his fourth of the season (all four of them to the opposite field):

Curtis Granderson, who had a four-strikeout day at the plate Sunday versus Washington, produced a key RBI double following Alfaro’s solo shot. Martín Prado responded with a sacrifice fly.

Cleveland’s lone run came off of a two-out single from Tyler Naquin in the seventh. The run was charged to López, but Adam Conley was on the mound during this specific play.

Miami’s bullpen was in sync Tuesday night. Conley, Drew Steckenrider and Sergio Romo turned down any possibilities for a Cleveland come-from-behind win.

On Wednesday, Miami will seek their first series sweep of any kind since September 2017. Sandy Alcantara and his 1-2 mark take the mound for a 1:10 p.m. first pitch. Cleveland is going with right-hander Jefry Rodríguez in what will be just his second major league appearance of the season.

Marlins vs. Indians box score (MLB.com)

FanGraphs

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