The latest on Marlins’ Jazz Chisholm Jr. And Anthony Bass ready for next opportunity

For a fourth consecutive game, Jazz Chisholm Jr. is not in the Miami Marlins’ lineup as he recovers from a left hamstring injury.

Chisholm last played for the Marlins on Sunday, when he was removed after two innings when his hamstring began tightening up on him. He did not play in either of Miami’s two games against the Tampa Bay Rays to start this road trip nor has he been in the lineup for the first two games against the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park, although manager Don Mattingly said there is a possibility he can be used as a pinch-hitter on Saturday depending on when — or if — he is cleared by the team’s medical staff.

“He did a lot of work [pregame Friday] and came out of that good,” Mattingly said. “I think everyone’s feeling good about where Jazz is.”

They will feel even better when he’s back in the lineup. Chisholm leads Marlins regulars in OPS (.922), RBI (27), runs scored (21), stolen bases (six) and triples (four) while ranking second with seven home runs.

Anthony Bass ready for next shot

Anthony Bass understood the situation he was entering into on Friday.

Bottom of the seventh inning. Two outs. Runner on first base. One-run lead.

And one of Major League Baseball’s premier hitters stepping to the plate in Ronald Acuna Jr.

The Marlins reliever’s game plan for the Braves’ young superstar was simple.

“Get ahead in the count,” Bass said, “and then put him away with a good executed slider.”

Bass executed the first part of the plan. After an elevated 95.4 mph sinker was called Ball 1, Bass then threw a pair of sliders — the first a called strike and the second foul tipped — to work the count against Acuna to 1-2.

The pitcher is ahead in the count, as he wanted.

Now the “good executed slider” to put Acuna away? Well, that didn’t go as planned.

Bass wanted the pitch to go down and away with the slider, a pitch that heading into Friday he had thrown a career-high 62.9 percent of the time and had produced positive results this season (.147 batting average against, 41.7-percent swing-and-miss rate, 16 strikeouts in 35 plate appearances that ended with the pitch). Instead, the 88 mph offering ran toward the heart of the plate. Acuna, who was pinch-hitting after being held out of the starting lineup for the series opener while dealing with a Grade 1 right quad strain. scorched the ball to left field for a game-tying RBI double that brought home Matt Olson from first base.

“He was able to put a good swing on it,” Bass said after the game, a 6-4 Marlins loss. “I left one out over the plate for him to handle.”

After a four-pitch walk to Dansby Swanson, Bass then gave up a go-ahead, two-run double to Ozzie Albies on a weakly hit ball to left field. Acuna became the game-winning run and Swanson running through third-base coach Ron Washington’s stop sign to give Atlanta an insurance run.

Prior to that outing, Bass had been one of the Marlins’ more reliable and consistent late-inning relievers through the first two months of the season. Friday was the first time he was charged with multiple runs in a game and it was the first time he allowed an inherited runner to score (Steven Okert walked Olson to begin the seventh inning).

“Just got to do a better job of executing in those situations once I get ahead in counts,” Bass said. “I like my chances moving forward.”

Late lineup change

Brian Anderson was a late scratch from the Marlins’ lineup Saturday with lower back spasms. Anderson is being evaluated further to determine the severity of the injury.

Anderson was originally slated to start in right field for a second consecutive game in place of Avisail Garcia, who is on the injured list. Instead, Bryan De La Cruz moved from center field to right field, Jon Berti moved from second base to center field and Willians Astudillo is the new starting second baseman.