Marlins Rout Dodgers 13-3 With 3 HRs
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Anthony DeSclafani leaned back against a wall outside the Miami Marlins' clubhouse, his face still dripping from sweat and a dazed look on his face as he juggled his emotions and dissected an experience that comes only once in every big league pitcher's life.
His first big league game and first victory.
Ed Lucas homered for Miami during a six-run second inning in which second baseman Dee Gordon's fielding error led to five unearned runs, and the Marlins scored another six runs two innings later to rout the Los Angeles Dodgers 13-3 on Wednesday night and snap a five-game losing streak.
DeSclafani, the Marlins' minor league pitcher of the year last season, struck out seven and had a single and drove in two runs. He was 3-4 with a 4.19 ERA in eight starts at Double-A Jacksonville.
"When I got the phone call, I took a big gulp and I couldn't even breathe," DeSclafani said. "It hasn't sunk in. I mean, it's such an unreal moment. I can't believe I got the win, can't believe I'm in L.A., and that I'm pitching against the Dodgers.
"It still hasn't hit me. I can't believe I was facing the Dodger lineup, going from Jacksonville to the big leagues. I wasn't expecting a callup. I was just trying to control my nerves. It was cool to throw the way I did, get a win and get the Marlins a win."
DeSclafani allowed two runs and seven hits over six innings after getting staked to a 12-0 lead.
"Run support obviously helps," he said. "But I was just so focused on trying to pound the strike zone, make sure I made quality pitches and didn't let anything get away from me."
Reed Johnson had a two-run homer and Jeff Mathis added a three-run shot in support of DeSclafani, a 24-year-old right-hander who was inserted into the rotation after Marlins ace Jose Fernandez was placed on the disabled list on Monday with a torn ligament in his elbow and became another high-profile candidate for Tommy John surgery.
Randy Wolf allowed one run over the final three innings for the save, the same day the 37-year-old left-hander exercised the out clause in his minor league contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks and signed a one-year deal with the Marlins.
Paul Maholm (1-4) was charged with 10 runs — five earned — and 11 hits in 3 2-3 innings. Batterymate A.J. Ellis, reinstated from the disabled list after missing 34 games because of an injured left knee that required arthroscopic surgery, was 0 for 4 in his eighth game of the season.
Yasiel Puig drove in the Dodgers' first run with a double in the fifth, extending his career-best hitting streak to 14 games. Carl Crawford homered and Andre Ethier had an RBI single for Los Angeles.
Dodgers manager Don Mattingly used five relievers and didn't want to waste another one in the ninth, so catcher Drew Butera came in to pitch in a major league game for the second time in his career and set the Marlins down 1-2-3 — finishing up by striking out Marcell Ozuna.
Butera's other appearance as a pitcher was May 20, 2012, for Minnesota at Milwaukee, when he threw a scoreless inning.
"It was very similar. I was a nervous wreck," Butera said. "We were down, obviously, and it's not a situation we wanted to be in. Donnie asked me if I wouldn't mind doing it, and I said 'Sure. Anything to help the team.' He asked me if I had ever pitcher before and I told him I had."
The Marlins' second-inning rally began with Johnson's single and a bunt hit to the left side by Garrett Jones with the Dodgers' infield defense overshifting the other way. A one-out single by Mathis loaded the bases for DeSclafani in his first big league plate appearance, and two runs scored when Gordon misplayed his grounder.
Yelish followed with a sacrifice fly, and Lucas drove a 2-2 pitch barely over the fence in left for his fifth big league homer and first this season. Giancarlo Stanton, whose three hits extended his hitting streak to 16 games, doubled over Crawford's head in left and came all the way home when Jeff Baker beat out an infield dribbler for Miami's sixth hit of the inning.
Gordon's error was the Dodgers' 36th in 42 games this season, accounting for 24 unearned runs — tying them with Cleveland for second-most allowed in the majors behind Philadelphia's 28.
NOTES: According to Scott Boras, the agent for Fernandez, his client has yet to commit to Tommy John surgery — which team physician Lee Kaplan recommended on Tuesday to repair the torn ligament in the 21-year-old's right elbow. "I think he's got to walk through some steps before he makes a decision," Boras said. ... Wolf, a 14-year veteran who missed the entire 2013 season recovering from Tommy John surgery, hadn't pitched off a major league mound since Sept. 22, 2012. He began this season with Arizona's Triple-A Reno club, going 5-1 with a 4.50 ERA in six starts.
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