Wei-Yin Chen and the Marlins are searching for answers after 10-run meltdown against Reds

With each successive swing, the Great American Ball Park crowd grew more and more boisterous. After three straight home runs for their Cincinnati Reds in the bottom of the sixth inning, the 10,058 fans in Cincinnati were ready to see more against Wei-Yin Chen. There were gasps of disappointment when Derek Dietrich’s homer-hunting swings led to a strikeout and more of the same when Jose Peraza ended the inning with another.

Finally after facing 10 batters, Chen could trudge off the mound, but he wasn’t done. A few minutes later after a 1-2-3 top of the seventh, the Miami Marlins sent him back to the mound, where he gave up another home run for the final run in the Reds’ 14-0 rout.

“I expect him to be better than that, but sometimes it’s not quite fair for him the way we’ve used him,” manager Don Mattingly said. “He’s sitting a lot, doesn’t know exactly when he’s going to pitch and it’s just not the role I think he’s accustomed to, but I do think eventually he’s going to get better.”

It would be hard for him to be worse. Chen, who was the Marlins’ Opening Day starter in 2016, pitched two innings in relief for Miami (3-8) on Tuesday after starting pitcher Jose Urena struggled. He allowed seven hits, walked two batters and hit another. The Reds (2-8) took him deep four times. The former starting pitcher allowed 10 earned runs to turn an already-substantial deficit into a blowout.

“It’s not fair to start with him,” Mattingly said. “I think you’ve got to start with Josy. He was our starter.”

Urena (0-3) was better than Chen, but it was his outing that put Mattingly and the Marlins in their initial predicament.

Miami tabbed Urena as its ace in the preseason, calling upon the right-handed pitcher to start on Opening Day for the second straight year. He was the most proven pitcher on a promising young staff.

His first start didn’t go well — five earned runs in 4 2/3 innings. His second went even worse — five in four innings. In outing No. 3, the starter’s struggles continued. The righty gave up eight hits and walked four. He struck out four batters — including starting pitcher Luis Castillo twice — and induced only four swinging strikes. Urena needed 91 pitches to get through five innings and by the time he exited the Marlins trailed 4-0 because Castillo (1-1) dominated. The former Miami prospect threw seven shutout innings, allowing just two hits and one walk, and striking out eight. He faced just one batter more than the minimum.

Chen’s meltdown, however, turned the loss into a rout in front of 10,058 in Cincinnati. In just two innings, Chen served up four home runs and gave up 10 earned runs to erase any slim chance the Marlins (3-8) had at a comeback.

The issues, though, started with Urena. Heralded as as Miami’s ace, the starter gave up eight hits to the Reds (2-8) and walked four more. Urena (0-3) struck out four batters — including starting pitcher Luis Castillo twice — and induced only four swinging strikes.

“He’s a guy that’s going to give you trouble and you’ve got to really try to get him in certain areas of the plate,” Mattingly said. “It’s not that easy to do.”

By the time Castillo left the game and the Marlins got a shot at the Reds’ bullpen, the deficit was insurmountable.

Chen came in for the sixth and served up batting practice. Now relegated to mop-up duty, the left-handed pitcher gave up back-to-back-to-back homers to Matt Kemp, third baseman Eugenio Suarez and outfielder Scott Schebler in the sixth. In the seventh, first baseman Joey Votto took Chen deep for another three runs.

“I wish I had an answer for you, but I don’t, and so far I just try to focus on executing every pitch and try not overthinking about anything,” Chen said through an interpreter. “But I guess I have to maybe communicate with the pitching coach more and discuss what went wrong.”

For now, there is no obvious diagnosis for four innings with 10 hits, five walks and 11 earned runs. In the first series of the season against the Colorado Rockies, the lefty faced two batters, walking one and allowing a hit to the other. Last Tuesday against the New York Mets, Chen gave up two hits, two walks and hit a batter, surrendering his first earned run of the season.

It all came apart Tuesday when he gave up a hit, a walk and another hit before the parade of homers even began. With almost two years left on the five-year, $80-million deal Chen signed in 2016, he knows he needs to figure out what’s going wrong — whether it’s something mechanical, something mental or somewhere in between.

“I think it’s probably a little bit of both, and I just tried to stay the same and tried to be as consistent as I could be,” Chen said. “And I haven’t been doing it well so far, but I can only keep working hard and try to focus on making adjustments.”

This story was originally published April 9, 2019 at 9:29 PM.