This season, Tim Anderson has graded out as a solid defensive shortstop, but a pair of errors he committed in the seventh inning on Monday ended up being the difference for the Marlins in their loss to the Padres.
The Miami Marlins signed Tim Anderson in free agency counting on him to bounce back from a horrid 2023 season. While it has continued to be a struggle for him offensively, Anderson has been a league-average shortstop in terms of both defensive runs saved and outs above average. Unfortunately, he was not at his best during the bottom of the seventh inning of Monday’s game against the San Diego Padres. Anderson committed two errors to load the bases and extend the inning, setting up Jake Cronenworth’s RBI walk that gave the Padres a win by a final score of 2-1.
“It’s not like he’s trying to make errors,” said manager Skip Schumaker following the game. “Those are gonna happen, so I feel bad for TA. We feel for the guy. No one feels worse than him. It’s a tough way to lose, but we scored one run also, so it’s not all on him, and when you only score one run, sometimes stuff like that happens behind you and we just couldn’t get the big hit either.”
Two errors for Tim Anderson in the bottom of the seventh inning. Second one far worse than the first.#Marlins pic.twitter.com/SfZ4UeAhBp
— Kevin Barral (@kevin_barral) May 28, 2024
Last season, these mistakes were more common from Anderson when he had a -16 DRS and -2 OAA. Marlins fans will remember an example from when the Fish played the Chicago White Sox on June 10. Trailing 1-0 with the bases loaded in the top of the ninth inning, Bryan De La Cruz hit a routine roller to short that was fumbled by Anderson, tying the game. It wasn’t an identical play, but certainly had a similar impact in a game his team lost.
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The Miami Marlins signed Tim Anderson in free agency counting on him to bounce back from a horrid 2023 season. While it has continued to be a struggle for him offensively, Anderson has been a league-average shortstop in terms of both defensive runs saved and outs above average. Unfortunately, he was not at his best during the bottom of the seventh inning of Monday’s game against the San Diego Padres. Anderson committed two errors to load the bases and extend the inning, setting up Jake Cronenworth’s RBI walk that gave the Padres a win by a final score of 2-1.
“It’s not like he’s trying to make errors,” said manager Skip Schumaker following the game. “Those are gonna happen, so I feel bad for TA. We feel for the guy. No one feels worse than him. It’s a tough way to lose, but we scored one run also, so it’s not all on him, and when you only score one run, sometimes stuff like that happens behind you and we just couldn’t get the big hit either.”
Last season, these mistakes were more common from Anderson when he had a -16 DRS and -2 OAA. Marlins fans will remember an example from when the Fish played the Chicago White Sox on June 10. Trailing 1-0 with the bases loaded in the top of the ninth inning, Bryan De La Cruz hit a routine roller to short that was fumbled by Anderson, tying the game. It wasn’t an identical play, but certainly had a similar impact in a game his team lost.
“Overall, I just gotta make those plays,” said Anderson following Monday’s game. “That’s really it. I just gotta make those plays in that situation… It’s not like I am trying to mess it up. All I can do is to continue to keep working and keep trying to be better and put this one to rest.”
Schumaker also spoke about the season Anderson has had. “I think he still has some work to do. No doubt. He’s frustrated, you can tell he was frustrated today. Frustrated defensively. He took a good at-bat and a big walk at the time. But I think he’s overall kinda frustrated honestly and he knows he’s a better player and he’s a winning player. I think that’s what hurts him the most.”
This season, the former All-Star and AL batting champ is slashing .203/.240/.224/.464 with six RBIs. His -0.5 fWAR is tied for the lowest among MLB shortstops.
“I’m not where I need to be,” said Anderson. “The work is there, the work ethic is there, but it’s only a matter of time that hopefully things can swing my way. All I can do is to continue to keep trusting and keep believing in it.”
The only run for the Marlins came in the top of the third inning thanks to Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s eighth home run of the season off of Padres starter Michael King. The ball left the bar at 107.7 mph and went 416 feet into the air. That tied the game at one apiece for the Marlins. The offense ended the game with four hits.
King, who has inconsistent this season, struck out seven and walked one. Including the home run, King surrendered three hits. All seven of his strikeouts were swinging and the majority of his 16 whiffs came from his changeup.
“Initially, we couldn’t pick up the changeup,” said Schumaker. “We were swinging right through that thing. His sinker/slider combo to the righties was effective as well. Lot of weak contact. Just really could not get anything going. Jazz had a big swing, but other than that, Josh Bell doubled and Jazz another double, but other than that, not too much offense.”
Marlins starting pitcher Trevor Rogers kept the Marlins in it, going 5 ⅓ innings pitched, giving up one run off of six hits, two walks and three strikeouts. Rogers went with a sinker/slider combo, which are his two least-used pitches this season. His sinker averaged 91.1 mph and the four-seam fastball was averaging 92.2 mph. Despite less usage on the four-seam, it generated three out of the four whiffs he had on the evening. His only other whiff came on the slider.
“He was behind quite a bit,” said Schumaker. “I also thought he made pitches when he had to. Jon Jay did a great job positioning with a couple of guys in the outfield. Jazz running down balls in the gap. (Jackson) Merrill squared one up right to him as well. His velo was better and got into the sixth inning. Last couple of starts have looked a lot better, no doubt about it and definitely gave us a chance to win. I thought he was good against a pretty good lineup, so I’ll take that version of Trevor every five days, no problem.”
The only run Rogers gave up was a solo homer to former Marlin Donovan Solano in the bottom of the second inning. That was Solano’s first home run of the season. It had an exit velocity of 97.6 mph and went 376 feet into the air. It gave the Padres an early 1-0 lead prior to Chisholm’s home run. Rogers next scheduled start is set to come in the series finale against the Texas Rangers on Sunday.
Final line for Trevor Rogers:
5.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO, 1 HR, 90 NP#Marlins pic.twitter.com/vUKAlEJ9Ym
— Kevin Barral (@kevin_barral) May 28, 2024
With the loss, the Marlins are now 19-36 on the season. Game two of the three-game set will be on Tuesday at 9:40 pm. Jesús Luzardo will take the mound for Miami. Knuckleball pitcher Matt Waldron gets the start for the Padres.
