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Bahamian star hits 19th home run on Saturday
Sheldon LongleySend an emailOctober 2, 2023 28 4 minute readFacebookTwitterLinkedInShare via Email
Bahamian Jasrado ‘Jazz’ Chisholm Jr. and the Miami Marlins have done it.
They weathered the storm, particularly after losing their best pitcher, Sandy Alcántara, and best hitter, Luis Arráez, to separate injuries down the stretch of the season, and advanced to the National League (NL) playoffs of Major League Baseball (MLB).
The flashy Bahamian outfielder of the Marlins surely did his part to help bring the Marlins through, connecting for his 19th home run of the season on Saturday as a part of a three-hit night. The 19 home runs is a single-season high for Chisholm in his four-year career in the big leagues. The Marlins defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-3, at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, clinching one of the two final wild card spots in the National League that night. The Arizona Diamondbacks took the other spot later that night.
The Marlins’ game against the New York Mets was called off with the Marlins leading 2-1 in the top of the ninth inning on Friday night, postponed to Monday, but as it turns out, they won’t need to return to New York for that suspended game as they handled business against Pittsburgh on Friday and Saturday.
For the Marlins, it’s just their fourth time in the playoffs in the club’s 31-year existence.
An overjoyed Chisholm sprinted from his outfield position to celebrate with teammates after the final out was recorded on Saturday.
“I feel like we’re just the biggest family in the league,” said Chisholm to reporters in the clubhouse afterwards. “I feel like nobody is as connected as us as a team. I feel like when someone gets going, everybody gets going. That’s the plan here and we’re just family and we’re coming in together.”
Batting clean-up on Saturday, Chisholm finished 3-for-5 with his 19th home run of the season, a towering shot to right field. He scored twice and drove in two. It was his 22nd multi hit game, and fourth three-hit game, of the season.
The Bahamian was out of the line-up on Sunday as the Marlins ended the regular season with a 3-0 loss to the Pirates. They finished the regular season with a 84-77 win/loss record and will play the Philadelphia Phillies in the wild card round of the playoffs, starting Tuesday.
The Bahamian ended the regular season just one home run shy of a 20-20 season. He batted .252 with 19 home runs and 52 RBIs (runs batted in). He had 22 stolen bases, one short of his career high in that department, an on-base percentage of .305 and a slugging percentage of .462 for an on-base plus slugging percentage of .767.
Defensively, he started 92 of the 95 games he played in, in center field, and finished with 171 putouts, four assists, three errors and assisted in one double play. He finished with a fielding percentage of .983 in his first full year playing the center field position.
Once again, Chisholm struggled with injuries this season, spending three stints on the injured list. However, when healthy, he proved that he is one of the more electrifying players in the majors.
Now, it’s on to the Phillies for Chisholm and the Marlins. The fourth-seeded Phillies will host all of the games in the mini best-of-three series against Chisholm and the fifth-seeded Marlins – the first and second games on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the third on Thursday if necessary. The winner of the series will meet the number one seeded Atlanta Braves in the National League Division Series. The number two seeded Los Angeles Dodgers will have homefield advantage in the other National League Division Series against either the third-seeded Milwaukee Brewers or the sixth-seeded Arizona Diamondbacks.
Chisholm and the Marlins are just excited to be playing meaningful baseball in October again. They weren’t regarded as a playoff contender coming into the season by a number of outlets, but proved the naysayers wrong as they continued to produce on the field when they needed to.
On Saturday, they got another lockdown performance from a bullpen that has carried a sizable share of the load over the last month of the season. A.J. Puk (7-5) and seven other relievers kept the Pirates in check on Saturday. On Friday, they won, 4-3, completing another late comeback.
“Before the game (on Saturday), we called it ‘Clinch Day’ and we weren’t expecting any other day to be ‘Clinch Day’ except today,” Chisholm said. “And that’s what we did and we handled it today.”
Spurred by first-year manager Skip Schumaker’s relentless optimism and a “why not us” approach, the Marlins are now in the playoffs while big spenders like the Mets and San Diego Padres will be watching from home.
Chisholm was five years old, growing up in The Bahamas in 2003, the last time the Marlins made the playoffs at the end of a 162-game regular season. Now, at 25, he is hoping to lead the club on a deep playoff run.
The Marlins used a 17-9 September surge to vault over the San Francisco Giants, the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds in the standings.
“This team has just exemplified heart and they know it,” said Marlins’ General Manager (GM) Kim Ng, the first female GM in Major League Baseball history. “And I think that is the driver of this group.”
As mentioned, the Marlins lost their best pitcher Sandy Alcántara and best hitter Luis Arráez to separate injuries down the stretch of the season. Arráez, who finished the season hitting a major league leading .354, is expected to be back for the playoffs while reigning NL Cy Young winner Alcántara is done for the year.
Arráez is the first player in MLB history to win batting titles in different leagues in consecutive seasons.
The Marlins are in the postseason for the second time in four years, following up on their appearance in the bubble in 2020, and just the fourth time in club history.
In two of those trips, they advanced all the way to the World Series, winning both times, in 1997 against the Cleveland Indians and in 2003 against the New York Yankees.