The Miami Marlins didn’t require a hand from a fan at Wrigley Field to thump the Chicago Cubs out of the end of the season games this time. The Marlins did fine and dandy all alone, and they indicated they’re not really bottom dwellers.
Garrett Cooper homered against Yu Darvish in a two-run seventh, hard-tossing freshman Sixto Sanchez ruled for five innings and the Marlins won their first season finisher arrangement in quite a while, beating the Cubs 2-0 on Friday to finish a two-game Wild Card Series clear.
Miami will confront the Atlanta Braves in the National Leagues Division Series in Houston beginning Tuesday.
Driven by administrator Don Mattingly and CEO Derek Jeter, the Marlins stayed unbeaten in every one of the seven postseason arrangement they have played, following victories in the 1997 and 2003 World Series. Furthermore, this time, in void Wrigley Field, they didn’t require a help from the group. In Game 6 of the 2003 NL Championship Series, fan Steve Bartman redirected Luis Castillo’s foul ball as Cubs left defender Moises Alou attempted to make a jumping get, which prompted an eight-run, eighth-inning rally.
“The one thing that we talked about us all year was why not us?” Mattingly said. “With this kind of pitching, you can do anything.
“You feel like you’ve got a good shot at kind of stopping almost anybody if you make pitches.”
Miami lost 105 games in 2019 and turned into the subsequent group to arrive at the end of the season games after a 100-misfortune crusade. They’re the first to win a postseason arrangement in the wake of having a 100-misfortune season. The Marlins completed second in the NL East at 31-29 subsequent to being assailed by an infection episode early this season that constrained 18 players from the field following the initial arrangement and kept them from playing for over seven days.
The Marlins had T-shirts printed with “Bottom Feeders” in their hole on Friday, a reference to a comment by Ricky Bottalico, a previous Phillies pitcher and current NBC Sports Philadelphia expert, after the Marlins’ Opening Day win in Philadelphia.
“I want to thank Ricky Bottalico for that motivation,” Miami closer Brandon Kintzler said.
Chicago, the NL Central boss, went 3-for-27 (.111) with sprinters on base in the arrangement. Javier Baez, Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo joined to go 0-for-12 on Friday and completed the arrangement 1-for-24. The threesome is 19-for-142 (.134) with 52 strikeouts and six strolls in the postseason since the 2016 World Series title as Chicago has lost nine of 13.
Chicago missed the end of the season games a year ago unexpectedly since 2014 and afterward scored one altercation its return. The Cubs haven’t progressed since the 2017 group lost in the NLCS.
“Just numb,” Rizzo said,
Cooper gave the Marlins a 1-0 lead with two outs in the seventh with a crash into the seats past the left-field divider. Matt Joyce multiplied off the glove of plunging focus defender Ian Happ, and Miguel Rojas pursued Darvish with a RBI single.
“That’s probably the best feeling I’ve had in my baseball career, the biggest home run that I’ve had in my baseball career,” Cooper said. “It’s just something that you can’t explain.”
Sanchez overwhelmed the Cubs, striking out six and surrendering four hits. The 22-year-old right-hander strolled two and hit two hitters.
Champ Brad Boxberger tossed 1⅓ innings. Richard Bleier got two outs in the seventh, and Yimi Garcia worked the eighth.
Kintzler, a previous Cub, surrendered a leadoff twofold to Jason Heyward in the ninth. Be that as it may, Kintzler struck out the following three players, siphoning his correct arm after he got special hitter Jason Kipnis swinging on a 2-2 pitch to end the game.