Lopez, relief corps lead Marlins past Orioles

Starter Pablo Lopez tossed five scoreless innings, Francisco Cervelli and Jesus Aguilar homered, and the Miami Marlins returned from an eight-day hiatus with a 4-0 shutout of the host Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday night. Baltimore starter John Means (0-1) hurled 4 2/3 innings and allowed one run on two hits.

Starter Pablo Lopez tossed five scoreless innings, Francisco Cervelli and Jesus Aguilar homered, and the Miami Marlins returned from an eight-day hiatus with a 4-0 shutout of the host Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday night. The game was Miami's first since July 26 after 21 members -- including 18 players -- tested positive for COVID-19 following a three-game series in Philadelphia to open the season.

Lopez (1-0) allowed just two hits, didn't issue a walk, and matched his career-high with seven strikeouts in his season debut. Relievers James Hoyt, Richard Bleier, Brad Boxberger, and Brandon Kintzler tossed an inning each for the Marlins, who fanned a season-high 11. Jon Berti went 2-for-4 with an RBI, a run and a stolen base.

Top-rated Miami prospect Monte Harrison made his major league debut and went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts. The center fielder recorded a sliding grab to rob Pedro Severino of a base hit. Baltimore starter John Means (0-1) hurled 4 2/3 innings and allowed one run on two hits. He struck out four without a walk.

Austin Hays had a pair of hits and stole a base for the Orioles, who mustered just three hits. Baltimore had only four baserunners and lost for the first time in four games. The first meeting between the teams -- a makeup of their game originally scheduled for July 29 in Miami -- was delayed 41 minutes due to more virus testing after a few Marlins had tests come up inconclusive. But all were retested, ruled negative and late getting to the park.

Means cruised into the fifth inning -- retiring 13 straight Marlins -- before making a two-out mistake. Cervelli smacked a 94 mph four-seam fastball on a 3-1 count for his first home run of the season and a 1-0 lead, chasing Means from the game. Berti added to the lead in the sixth with an RBI single plating Jonathan Villar, who had singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch from reliever Travis Lakins.

Baltimore third baseman Renato Nunez made a fielding error with the bases full on a two-out grounder that stayed down instead of coming up after hitting the lip of the grass. The unearned run made it 3-0. Aguilar got the green light on a 3-0 pitch from Thomas Eshelman for a long homer to left -- his third this season -- to push it to 4-0 in the eighth.

--Field Level Media