Straily suffers worst start since joining Marlins in lopsided loss to Rangers
Dan Straily didn’t make excuses Tuesday night after his worst start since joining the Marlins.
“I just didn’t have it tonight,” Straily said. “It’s a game I’m going to forget about as quick as possible and get ready for [my next start] Sunday.”
Straily wasn’t anywhere near as sharp as the pitcher who’s become one of the few bright spots in the Marlins’ rotation this season, giving up a season-worst six runs on 10 hits in a 10-4 loss to the Rangers at Globe Life Park.
Straily yielded three solo home runs – also a season-high – as the Rangers hit four overall.
“These guys are pretty good high fastball hitters,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “Dan works kind of more fly balls than ground balls. Tonight, you’ve got to have a little extra at times, and have your other stuff going down to keep them off of it. It didn’t seem like he had that tonight.”
Straily, who struck out one batter in four innings (70 pitches), has struggled over his past two starts. This came after Straily bruised his thumb when he got jammed, swinging the bat during his first start after the All-Star break on July 14.
In his last two starts since then, Straily has given up 10 earned runs on 19 hits in nine innings. Straily did not attribute his struggles to any physical issue.
“I just didn’t have it,” Straily said. “It’s that simple. There’s no fix. There’s nothing wrong.”
Joey Gallo hit two of the Rangers’ home runs with Rougned Odor and Pembroke Pines Flanagan High alum Mike Napoli hitting the other two. Ironically, Adrian Beltre didn’t get any closer to 3,000 hits, going 0 for 3 and remaining seven hits away. Beltre, who went 4 for 4 on Monday, drove in a run in the third on a sacrifice fly and reached base only once on a walk on Tuesday.
The Rangers scored three runs in the third and four in the fifth as all nine batters came to bat in each inning. The Rangers had a season-high 31 total bases and two of their hitters – Nomar Mazara (0 for 26) and Jonathan Lucroy (0 for 22) – snapped extended hitting slumps.
“It was just way too many pitches over the plate,” Straily said. “Whatever game plan we had I just wasn’t able to execute it tonight. It’s really on me. I didn’t have enough command of anything. My stuff was just flat tonight. You can throw the game plan out the window when I just can’t execute.”
Christian Yelich drove in all four Marlins’ runs on a pair of doubles and a three-run home run off Rangers starter Cole Hamels. Yelich recorded four RBI in a game for the fourth time in his career and matched his amount of career hits against Hamels.
Yelich had gone 3 for 16 in his career with only one extra-base hit (a double) against Hamels, a frequent adversary for the Marlins when he pitched for the Phillies.
“Yeah, he got me pretty good early in my career,” Yelich said. “I think I had about 15 ground balls to second off of him, from that sinker and a cutter. But it’s baseball, man.”
Yelich’s 395-foot homer to right center field in the fifth inning got the Marlins back in the game by cutting the Rangers’ lead to 6-4.
But Texas put the game back out of reach in the bottom of the frame with four runs off reliever Brian Ellington as Shin-Soo Choo doubled and Elvis Andrus singled to drive in three runs following Odor’s solo blast.
“We lost, so it really doesn’t matter,” Yelich said.
This story was originally published July 25, 2017 at 11:05 PM with the headline "Straily suffers worst start since joining Marlins in lopsided loss to Rangers."