Garrett outlasts Darvish and the Marlins beat the Padres 9-1 behind season-high 16 hits
By BERNIE WILSON
AP Sports Writer
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Braxton Garrett outlasted Yu Darvish, Josh Bell had three hits and scored twice and the Miami Marlins beat the sloppy San Diego Padres 9-1 on Wednesday to avoid a sweep.
Jesús Sánchez hit a solo homer and Jazz Chisholm Jr. had two hits and drove in two runs as the Marlins had a season-high 16 hits and snapped the Padres’ three-game winning streak. The Padres dropped to 13-19 at home.
Garrett (2-0) was impressive for five innings, allowing one run and six hits, with two strikeouts and no walks. His only big mistake was allowing Ha-Seong Kim’s leadoff homer in the third, his seventh.
Garrett was making just his fourth start this season after spending the first 38 games on the injured list due to a left shoulder impingement suffered during spring training. He was coming off his first career shutout — on just 95 pitches — in a win at Arizona on Friday night.
“Not super sharp, but was able to get through it was just the one run,” Garrett said. “It was one of those days where I felt I was just missing and when I tried to make that adjustment, I’d miss over the plate. Wasn’t sharp, but we battled hard.”
He was backed to some nice defensive plays. With runners on first and second, and two outs in the third, Bell, the first baseman made a nice diving stop of Jake Cronenworth’s grounder and threw him out to end the inning. In the fifth, left fielder Nick Gordon barehanded the carom of Fernando Tatis Jr.’s liner off the base of the wall and threw him out at second.
“At this level you’ve got to play defense,” manager Skip Schumaker. “When we pitch and we play defense, we usually win. Today was another example of that.”
Schumaker said Garrett was “probably not as sharp as he wanted to be, but every time he pitches we have a really good chance to win.”
The Marlins went 3-3 on a swing through Arizona and San Diego.
“We faced a really good lineup, our pitchers did really good, our offense broke out finally, today, which is good to see,” Schumaker said. “Arizona I thought we did fantastic. We had a chance to win two games here as well, but that’s the big leagues.”
Darvish (4-3) was finished after three innings and 66 pitches. He allowed three runs, two earned, and six hits, with two strikeouts and one walk. It was his second straight loss after winning his previous four starts.
“Darvish is not easy to face,” Schumaker said. “He lives on the edges and you get in trouble if you chase and you start to play guess with him. So we got him in the middle of the plate. I thought the guys did a really good job.”
In his last start, Darvish allowed four home runs to the New York Yankees in an 8-0 loss on Friday night.
The Marlins took advantage of Padres’ mistakes, including two errors.
No. 9 batter Nick Fortes hit a two-out RBI double in the second as right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr., who won the NL Gold Glove and Platinum Glove awards last year, took a bad route. Chisholm followed with an RBI single.
A throwing error by Padres third baseman Manny Machado allowed a run in the third. The Marlins piled on with three runs in the fifth. Jake Burger, Otto Lopez and Vidal Bruján all hit RBI singles for a 6-1 lead.
Sánchez homered with one out in the sixth, his third, and Chisholm hit an RBI triple in the seventh.
UP NEXT
Marlins: RHP Sixto Sánchez (1-3, 6.25 ERA) is scheduled to start Friday night in the opener of a home series against the Texas Rangers.
Padres: RHP Dylan Cease (5-4, 3.29) will start Friday night in the opener of a three-game series at Kansas City.
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