Peters Throws 6 Sharp Innings, Marlins Top Cubs 6-0
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MIAMI (CBSMiami/AP) — Opening weekend went a lot better for the Miami Marlins than most of the 'experts' expected.
Dillon Peters threw six scoreless innings, Brian Anderson hit a three-run double to highlight a five-run fifth and Miami beat the Chicago Cubs 6-0 on Sunday to split their opening four-game series.
Chad Wallach had two hits for the Marlins, who were hitless in their first four innings before getting the offense going.
Peters (1-0) helped a well-worked bullpen out in a big way, rarely getting himself into any trouble. He threw 89 pitches, 56 for strikes, striking out two and walking only one.
Wallach's RBI single snapped an 0-for-11 start to his season and got the Marlins on the board, bringing in Cameron Maybin.
Derek Dietrich's single under the glove of Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo drove home Wallach to make it 2-0, and Anderson's two-out line drive to right off Cubs starter Jose Quintana (0-1) cleared the bases.
Quintana gave up six hits and six runs in six innings. The last of the runs charged to him scored when he uncorked a wild pitch in the sixth.
Kyle Schwarber had a pair of hits for the Cubs, who stranded 10 runners on Sunday and 42 runners for the series — a lot even when considering one of the four games in Miami was a 17-inning affair on Friday night.
Cubs manager Joe Maddon said before the game that he was already a bit concerned about his bullpen because so much work was needed in these four games. He made it out of Sunday with only one pitching change required, after Brian Duensing worked the final two innings in relief of Quintana.
TRAINER'S ROOM
After going to the bullpen 15 times in the season's first three games, the Marlins decided they needed an extra arm. They selected RHP Severino Gonzalez from Triple-A New Orleans.
REDEEMED
Cubs RF Jason Heyward dove into first to beat out an infield grounder in the fourth, getting there when Marlins 1B Garrett Cooper chose to keep the ball himself and not flip it to Peters covering the bag. That gave the Cubs runners on first and third with one out, but Cooper more than atoned on the next pitch — hard-charging to field a bunt by Javier Baez and throwing home to start a 3-2-5 retiring of Schwarber and keeping the game scoreless.
JM2K
Sunday was the 2,000th game in the managerial career of Cubs manager Joe Maddon — although it's only the 1,999th that counted. The Cubs and Pittsburgh played to a 1-1 tie in 2016, a late-September game stopped by rain because it was going to have no impact on the standings. Of the previous 33 managers with 2,000 games and at least one World Series title, 21 have already been enshrined in the Hall of Fame.
UP NEXT
Cubs: RHP Tyler Chatwood gets the start in Cincinnati on Monday afternoon against Reds RHP Tyler Mahle.
Marlins: RHP Trevor Richards will be called up to make his big-league debut Monday against the Boston Red Sox, who'll start LHP Brian Johnson.
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)