Fresh Fish News, 4/7/19: Fightin’ Fish break their losing streak, Guerrero’s hot start, 2019 MiLB season

With a larger sample of 2019 Miami Marlins baseball to review, Fish Stripes takes a look at the news and stories from the week.

Tayron Guerrero Showing Closer Potential

Coming off an inconsistent rookie season, Tayron Guerrero has seemingly taken a huge step forward. His elite fastball velocity is still there, as demonstrated Friday vs. Atlanta when Guerrero threw 11 pitches of at least 100 miles per hour. He’s also shown more confidence in his slider. So far, the tall right-hander has contributed 4 ²⁄₃ scoreless innings.

MLB.com beat writer Joe Frisaro wonders whether it’s time for the Marlins to give Guerrero more opportunities in high-leverage situations.

Fish Stripes Podcast Expands

The debut episodes of our community’s two new pod shows, Earning Their Stripes hosted by Ethan Budowsky, Daniel Martinez and Ian Smith as well as A-Ball with Erik Oas, are now available. They will provide weekly coverage of the Marlins farm system with exclusive interviews and fun banter.

You can subscribe to the Fish Stripes podcast on Apple Podcasts, Megaphone and PlayerFM, with pages coming soon on Podbean, Stitcher and elsewhere.

MLB Game Recaps

Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

Since my previous weekly roundup, the Marlins won the series finale against the Rockies, got swept by the Mets in three games and evened the series against the Braves. They went 2-4 in those games and are now 3-6 overall on the season.

March 31—Marlins 3, Rockies 0; The Marlins shutout the Colorado Rockies on eight scoreless innings by Sandy Alcantara and a clean inning by Sergio Romo for his first Marlins save. Jorge Alfaro hit a two-run single in the 4th and JT Riddle hit a solo HR in the seventh to secure the win and series split for the Marlins.

April 1—Mets 7, Marlins 3; This Monday matchup saw the Marlins go up against the New York Mets in the start of a three game series. Caleb Smith got the start going five innings giving up two earned runs on four hits but with 8 strikeouts. Starlin Castro provided all the runs with a two-run HR and an RBI single. The game was tied until the ninth inning on a controversial HBP call on Juan Lagares that ended up leading to four runs scoring, three of which came off Pete Alonso’s first Major League HR and sealed the win for the Mets.

April 2—Mets 6, Marlins 5; The second game of the series saw Jose Urena give up five runs in the first inning in what many thought would be an easy victory for the Mets. The Marlins did not give up so easily and came within a run of tying the game by scratching a couple of runs across every couple of innings. Starlin Castro and Lewis Brinson had three hits each with an RBI, Castro’s off a solo HR. Brian Anderson, JT Riddle and Peter O’Brien also contributed a run each but the Marlins came up just short.

April 3—Mets 6, Marlins 4; Another close game that did not lead to a Marlins victory saw Miami send Trevor Richards to the mound against Jacob deGrom. The Cy Young Award winner did not make it easy striking out 14 Marlins hitters and clobbering a HR off of Richards. Richards ended up giving up three runs off five hits but striking out seven. The Marlins went for the comeback scoring four runs in the ninth off of RBIs by Martin Prado, Lewis Brinson, Rosell Herrera, and Miguel Rojas but again could not get the win.

April 5—Braves 4, Marlins 0; The Marlins got shutout against the Atlanta Braves in the first of three games this weekend. Pablo López got the start and was looking great in the first couple of innings until a four-run fourth inning sealed the win for the Braves. The Marlins did not go down without fighting as they had the bases loaded with two outs in the ninth but Starlin Castro hit a hard fly ball to the warning track to end it.

April 6—Marlins 4, Braves 2; The Marlins finally got back in the win column. Pitcher Sandy Alcantara only lasted four innings and gave up five walks but he only gave up two runs on four hits. The bullpen went strong and completed the rest of the game with no runs scored with Adam Conley getting the save. Jorge Alfaro carried the team with two HR and 3 RBIs with Peter O’Brien also contributing a solo HR for the win.

MiLB Season Underway

This past Thursday was the start of the Minor League Baseball season. The Marlins’ full-season affiliates are the New Orleans Baby Cakes (Triple-A), Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Double-A), Jupiter Hammerheads (High-A) and Clinton LumberKings (Low-A).

These clubs enter Sunday with a 5-5 combined record. Right-hander Zac Gallen has the top individual performance thus far with a near-perfect outing for the Baby Cakes.

You may find this page useful for monitoring Marlins at all levels of the organization.

Five Reasons Sports Network launches new website

Already well known for their South Florida sports podcasts, the Five Reasons Sports Network recently launched a new website. We are excited to see more full-service sports coverage in this market.

As the Marlins continue to build on an interesting start to the season, Fish Stripes also will try and keep the momentum going by updating all you Marlins fans about the latest news and developments!