Xavier Edwards was swinging the bat sweetly before he landed on the injured list with a left mid-back strain almost three weeks ago.<\/p>\n
The Miami Marlins\u2019 leadoff man picked up Sunday where he left off.<\/p>\n
In his first game in the starting lineup since being reinstated Saturday, Edwards matched a franchise record with a career-best five hits (5 for 5) in the Marlins\u2019 4-2 loss to the Giants at loanDepot park. He also drove in a run and scored another.<\/p>\n
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\u201cSwinging at good pitches, keeping the ball low,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cTwo things I was focused on today in the cage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edwards said he had a \u201cdifferent mind-set,\u201d adding that his time on the IL allowed him to return \u201cclear-headed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Said Marlins\u2019 manager Clayton McCullough: \u201cFour of the five hits were stung well. He got pitches in areas that were advantageous for him and the directness and crispness of the path were great today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edwards was 10 for 32 (.313) during an eight-game hitting streak prior to his 13 games on the injured list and 0 for 1 as a pinch-hitter Saturday.<\/p>\n
The right side of the Marlins\u2019 infield featured a new look in Sunday\u2019s series finale, with Edwards manning second base, making his first start there since July 21 of last season, and catcher Liam Hicks, using Eric Wagaman\u2019s glove, playing first base for the first time in the majors.<\/p>\n
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Edwards said he learned he would be switching from shortstop when McCullough called him prior to his rehab games in Atlanta, and he was \u201cgood\u201d with the change.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s where I spent most of my minor-league career, so it\u2019s home for me,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p>\n
While the Marlins view Edwards\u2019 move as permanent, Hicks is expected to continue splitting time behind the plate with fellow rookie Agust\u00edn Ram\u00edrez and Nick Fortes and get some starts at designated hitter, in addition to platooning with Wagaman at first.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to do whatever it takes to get in the lineup,\u201d Hicks said before the game. \u201cSo if they\u2019re giving me an opportunity to play first, I\u2019m going to run with it and try to be the best I can be over there and make sure I can be in the lineup as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
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In the third inning, Hicks collided with Matt Chapman while tagging Chapman after Connor Norby\u2019s throw from across the diamond drew Hicks\u2019 foot off the bag. In the eighth, shortstop Otto Lopez, Edwards and Hicks cleanly executed a double play.<\/p>\n
Before Sunday, Hicks had last played first base in Double A about a year ago. He said positioning and footwork would be the keys to regaining comfort there and credits Wagaman for helping \u201ca lot\u201d with both.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been over there taking [ground balls] at the same time,\u201d Hicks said. \u201cHe\u2019s given me some tips with positioning, foot placement on the bag, just some things you\u2019re not that familiar with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marlins\u2019 first base and infield coach Tyler Smarslok said Hicks received about a week and a half of pregame work at first base leading up to Sunday.<\/p>\n
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\u201cHe moves his feet really well. He\u2019s got really good hands. He\u2019s got the catcher hands that can really work short hops,\u201d Smarslok said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was nice for him to get out there,\u201d McCullough said after Sunday\u2019s game. \u201cHopefully he feels more comfortable over there now getting a game rep under his belt and it\u2019s a way for us to be able to have Liam get some opportunities in the lineup.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u25aa Marlins\u2019 starter Ryan Weathers allowed four runs and five hits through six innings. He struck out seven and walked three.<\/p>\n
With two outs in the fourth, Luis Matos clubbed an 86-mph changeup from Weathers 390 feet to left center for a three-run home run.<\/p>\n
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\u201cObviously the changeup hurt me, but the two [at-bats] before that are really what killed me,\u201d Weathers said. \u201cMy heater was probably the best it\u2019s been all year today. Breaking ball was landing really well. I threw a couple of hard sliders really good. Changeup was really good.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was one of those outings where you leave it going \u2018Man, this kind of sucks with the stuff I had today.\u2019 All three of the walks were bad walks, and then obviously the pitch that broke my back was the three-run homer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u25aa A day after crashing hard into the center-field wall making a catch, Dane Myers said he felt fine physically. He pinch-hit for Hicks in the eighth inning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Xavier Edwards was swinging the bat sweetly before he landed on the injured list with a left mid-back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2395],"tags":[456,191,5,6381,9350,1951,1392,7728,10008,1816,379,778,58,4171,4,2145,1753,1073,6878],"class_list":{"0":"post-73087","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-marlins","8":"tag-agustin-ramirez","9":"tag-atlanta","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-clayton-mccullough","12":"tag-connor-norby","13":"tag-dane-myers","14":"tag-eric-wagaman","15":"tag-liam-hicks","16":"tag-luis-matos","17":"tag-marlins","18":"tag-matt-chapman","19":"tag-miami","20":"tag-miami-marlins","21":"tag-miamimarlins","22":"tag-mlb","23":"tag-nick-fortes","24":"tag-otto-lopez","25":"tag-ryan-weathers","26":"tag-xavier-edwards"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114612677206953970","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}