NYM 1, MIA 3; Cooper Saves the Day With a Walk-Off

He may have had a slow start, but Garrett Cooper has arrived. On an afternoon where the Miami Marlins offense couldn’t find any success against the New York Mets, it was Cooper who walked off the Mets with a home run to left center field.

Cooper came into the game having already hit a home run in the previous two games, and getting at least one hit in the previous seven. In those seven games, Cooper slashed .360/.385/.760.

On a 3-2 count against Mets reliever Drew Smith, Cooper took a 90 MPH cutter in the middle of the zone for a two-run home run.

“Earlier in the at-bat, I was looking for a fastball middle-up, because I know he has good ride on his fastball,” said Cooper. “And he threw the 2-0 cutter. So I kind of had an idea that with the 3-2 count, he’s probably going to go back to it because that’s just pitch. I just put a good swing on it. Didn’t try to do too much. Put a barrel on it, and it went out.”

Cooper had been struggling to put together quality at-bats early this season. Before his current seven-game hit streak, he had only been hitting .194.

Prior to that, the Marlins offense couldn’t put anything together against the Mets, with the only run coming in the seventh inning on a Corey Dickerson sacrifice fly that scored Brian Anderson.

The closest they came to scoring before that was in the fifth inning, when the Fish had runners on first and second base with just one out. Chad Wallach and Pablo López proceeded to strike out to end the inning.

Anderson and Cooper pretty much mirrored each other’s success all day. Anderson went 3-for-4 on Saturday. He has now hit in 14 of 17 games during the month of May. This is now the first time all season that Anderson’s OBP is over .300.

When the Marlins needed a deep and effective start from Pablo López, he delivered. One night removed from a 12-inning loss that saw the Marlins use every member of their bullpen, Lopez gave the Fish seven strong innings of shutout baseball. That matched the longest outing of his major league career.

On Cuban Heritage Night—which featured a Jorge Alfaro bobblehead giveaway—the Marlins announced a crowd of 7,513 fans, the largest turnout for any game at LoanDepot Park this season.

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Sunday’s 1:10 p.m. game will be the rubber match of the series. Intriguing rookie right-hander Cody Poteet gets the start or the Fish.

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Fish Picks Answer Key

1. Marlins
2. Under
3. No
4. Marlins
5. Milwaukee Bucks