June 19th, 2024
Christina DeNicola
@cdenicola13MIAMI -- Otto Lopez made sure to tell Marlins manager Skip Schumaker early on when he joined the ballclub that he doesn’t like to check the next day’s lineup the night before. Regardless of whether Lopez is starting, he shows up to the park ready to play.
That sort of mindset came in handy during Wednesday’s series finale between the Marlins and Cardinals at loanDepot park. After Miami scratched Jazz Chisholm Jr. with right hamstring tightness for precautionary reasons, Vidal Bruján moved from second base to center field. Lopez, who was scheduled to get a day off, was inserted at second and batted eighth.
Lopez produced the game-winning knock in a 4-3 win over the Cardinals, giving the Marlins their MLB-high seventh walk-off victory of the season and second in as many games. Miami has won consecutive contests for the first time in June after dropping six in a row.
“You know what you're going to get out of Otto,” Schumaker said. “It's going to be the fight. It's going to be the effort. It's never going to lack any of the stuff that we really care about here. I think when he starts forcing it, that's when just like everyone else, just like Bruján two nights ago, and then he lets the ball come to him. It's the same thing as Otto.
“They're younger players in the league, and so it just takes a little bit of time in developing offensively or defensively, both of them, and that's part of that clubhouse's job and our job to kind of mentor that and massage that a little bit.”
Dane Myers led off the ninth-inning rally with a single that dropped in front of right fielder Alec Burleson, who was playing no-doubles defense. Myers was negated on Tim Anderson’s fielder’s choice, but Anderson advanced to second on Bruján’s groundout to third because he was running on the pitch.
Following consecutive sliders out of the zone from right-hander Ryan Fernandez, Lopez sent a sinker over the middle of the plate to right field. It dropped in front of Burleson, who lost control of the ball on the exchange trying to rush a throw home.
“On that AB, I tell myself to get a good at-bat and just be more patient, find a good pitch to hit,” said Lopez, who also recorded the walk-off hit on May 18. “It's not been a good series for me, but I try to be positive the most I can and work on what I was doing lately. And the hitting coaches were on top of me like, look what I was doing before, and we get together and make a couple adjustments.”
The 25-year-old Lopez has been trying to rediscover his swing since returning from the paternity list on June 11. Entering Wednesday, he had gone 4-for-29 (.138) with two extra-base hits and no RBIs in eight games. Lopez’s slash line had dropped from .293/.321/.414 to .258/.293/.371. Nothing revelatory was advised by the hitting staff, mainly just staying more on his back side.
Lopez, who has taken command of second-base duties since the Luis Arraez trade, didn’t even start the season with the organization. Lopez joined Miami on April 4 after being claimed from San Francisco, and he was recalled 11 days later from Triple-A. Lopez had played in just nine career MLB games, and none since 2022.
“I think there's some guys that would try to force it or try to do too much,” Schumaker said. “It shows the maturity that he hit the ball the other way against a really good sinker/slider guy, stayed on it, didn't try to create, overextend himself. So I think he was able to flush the last couple of at-bats and not try to do too much. That shows a sign of maturity and still staying with his game plan and his strengths.”
Lopez wasn’t the only one making adjustments. After lefty Matthew Liberatore took over for righty Kyle Gibson before he threw a pitch due to back tightness, Bryan De La Cruz and Jesús Sánchez went back-to-back to open the first.
The only other time the Marlins knocked consecutive homers to lead off a game was Aug. 27, 2010, against the Braves when Cameron Maybin and Logan Morrison did it.
“Otto is a player who puts the ball in play, and I think he's a key player for situations like today that he can put the ball in play and give us the victory,” De La Cruz said via interpreter Luis Dorante Jr.
