Last winter, the process took off when owner Bruce Sherman hired a fiercely optimistic first-year named Skip Schumaker, who secured the position in the first hour of his interview. With the addition of veterans like Josh Bell at the trade deadline and the return of All-Star second baseman Luis Arraez, it accelerated.
And then Ng appeared on Saturday night, her hair soaked in a mixture of bubbly and Budweiser, sporting a black T-shirt with the Miami Marlins’ iconic teal text, “Take October.” After the Marlins defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-3 to secure the team’s fourth postseason appearance in their 31-year history, excitement was in the air in the clubhouse.
Asked how a team that will finish the season with a negative run differential around 50 and injury issues made it to the postseason, Ng smiled as she tried and occasionally failed to dodge a steady stream of beer showers.
This team has just exemplified heart and they know it,” she said. “And I think that is the driver of this group.”
Miami likely will have the worst run differential of a postseason team in major league history. The Marlins lost ace Sandy Alcantara to an elbow injury in early September while lineup fixtures like Arraez and Jorge Soler battled health issues down the stretch.
Still. Miami entered Sunday a remarkable 33-13 in one-run games, the best winning percentage (.718) in the National League since 1980, a full 13 years before Charlie Hough threw the franchise’s first pitch.
“They’ve proved to themselves they can do it,” Schumaker said. Over and over and over again.
Miami’s clinching victory in some ways symbolized its season. Star centerfielder and video game cover model Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit an early homer. A walk, a bunt single, a sacrifice and a forceout grounder gave them the lead for good. Eight relievers combined to get 27 outs, the last four by newish closer Tanner Scott.
It is not the way Schumaker drew it up. Yet the utility player who got every bit of ounce he could out of his talent during an 11-year big-league career has become the manager perhaps uniquely qualified to handle a roster that is better than the sum of its parts.
“He said (during his interview) ‘I have certain unconditional aspects of how I manage’ and boy, he managed that way,” Sherman said. “The motivation he got from these guys, unbelievable.”
Motivation that wavered but never fully waned, even as Miami trudged through an uneven first five months of the season in which it did little more than find a way to hang around.
