While the Washington Nationals were tearing through a torrid second half of the 2019 season to eventually win their first World Series, Humbero Mejia was also celebrating some of his own milestone-worthy accomplishments as he toiled in the Miami Marlins' minor-league system. Last summer, the right-handed pitcher finally got the call up to play for Class A Advanced Jupiter.
A little more than a year later, Mejia is in the Majors because of the COVID-19 outbreak which ravaged the Marlins' pitching staff last month. On Sunday, he made his third MLB start against those defending champions and he battled admirably as long as he could before Washington chased him from the game after less than four innings to hand Miami a 9-3 loss at Nationals Park.
"Humberto was OK. He hangs in there," manager Don Mattingly said. "If we make some plays, it's a 1-1 game when he comes out of there or close to it, so he's OK. He's hanging in there. We just didn't do enough to win."
Mejia, who never pitched above Class A Advanced before the Marlins (11-11) called him up make his MLB debut Aug. 7, lasted just 3 2/3 innings, as the Nationals (11-14) drilled him for four runs _ two earned _ on seven hits and two walks with four strikeouts. Mejia's short outing left Miami in a bind as the Marlins, with the 12th worst bullpen ERA in baseball, turned to its relievers for more than four innings.
The loss, Miami's 10th in 14 games, drops the Marlins back to .500 and keeps them at least two games behind the Atlanta Braves for first place in the National League East. The Marlins are now one game ahead of the New York Mets, and 1 { ahead of the Nationals for the second and final guaranteed playoff spot in the NL East. Miami wraps up a five-game series in Washington on Monday at 6:05 p.m.
In each of his four innings, Mejia (0-2) allowed multiple baserunners and the Nationals scored in three of the four frames. In the first inning, Mejia gave up a leadoff single to star shortstop Trea Turner, needed outfielder Lewis Brinson to rob a home run by star outfielder Juan Soto and fell into a 1-0 deficit when Howie Kendrick doubled off the wall to drive Turner home from first.
In the second, Mejia gave up a single to Washington middle infielder Luis Garcia, walked rookie Carter Kieboom and gave up another run on an infield single by Turner to fall behind 2-1 after shortstop Miguel Rojas bobbled a grounder. Even in the scoreless third inning, the righty had to work around a Soto single and a walk by Nationals slugger Eric Thames.
Mejia, who often was just a relief pitcher in the minors, ran out of gas in the fourth. Garcia led off with a single and went to second on an error by middle infielder Jonathan Villar, then Mejia hit Turner with two outs. Washington outfielder Adam Eaton made the pitcher pay, stretching the Nationals' lead to 4-1 with a two-run, two-out double to right. Mattingly yanked Mejia after he failed to get through four innings for the second time in three career starts.
"Honestly, we didn't help ourselves very much. We walked people and had chances to make plays and then it got away, so we didn't really play very well in a whole lot of aspects," Mattingly said. "It's one of those games you walk away from disappointed, but you don't deserve to win because you didn't do to close to enough to win the game."
Relief pitcher Sterling Sharp gave up five more runs in the fifth inning and the Marlins managed almost nothing against Anibal Sanchez. The Washington starting pitcher gave up just a solo home run in the second to outfielder Corey Dickerson, who later left the game in fifth inning with a left shoulder contusion when he dove into the seats chasing a foul ball. Sanchez (1-3) held Miami to five hits and no walks with five strikeouts in seven innings.
"He's one of those guys you can get to," said Dickerson, who expects to play Monday, "or he's going to have a really good day."
