Marlins went to the bullpen early after a gritty start from Richards. It didn’t end well
It wasn’t pretty at times, especially in the fourth inning, but the Miami Marlins had a lead and a chance to even the series against the Atlanta Braves on Saturday night.
Then came the sixth inning.
Reliever Nick Anderson, who just four days earlier tied the franchise record for most strikeouts in a month, gave up five runs in his worst stint out of the bullpen as the Marlins fell 9-2 at Marlins Park.
The dagger: A two-out, two-strike grand slam from Ozzie Albies into the right-field seats.
“We had been dodging bullets all game,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “... We couldn’t get out of that one.”
Tyler Kinley and Austin Brice gave up four more runs in the seventh to further cement the loss, the Marlins’ sixth defeat in the last seven games after winning four of six before that.
The bullpen implosion came following a gritty performance from starter Trevor Richards, who lasted just 4 1/3 innings and whose first win of the 2019 season still eludes him. He threw 90 pitches in his seventh start of the year.
He worked his way out of a pair of jams, none bigger than what he did in the fourth inning.
The 25-year-old right-handed pitcher loaded the bases with two outs on a single and a pair of walks before getting Edner Inciarte to fly out to Rosell Herrera in center field.
The inning was harmless in the moment.
But the real damage came to Richards pitch count. Richards needed 38 pitches to get through the frame, one in which he faced six batters and included four consecutive plate appearances with between six and nine pitches.
“I got ahead of hitters, I thought,” Richards said. “Just couldn’t finish the at-bats. I was nibbling around the corners a little bit too much and wasn’t attacking hitters.”
He lasted two more batters, striking out pitcher Mike Soroka to lead off the fifth before Albies reached on a fielding error when Peter O’Brien and Herrera collided trying to field a fly ball in shallow left-center field.
“As soon as somebody gets on, I knew I had to go get him,” Mattingly said.
Enter the bullpen.
Anderson quickly retired the first two batters he faced, striking out Josh Donaldson and getting Freddie Freeman to fly out to left in a clean fifth inning.
And then came that sixth inning, which went as follows for Anderson:
▪ Ronald Acuna Jr. infield single, barely beating out a throw from Jon Berti at third base.
▪ Nick Markakis line drive single to center that sent Acuna to third.
▪ Dansby Swanson fielder’s choice, with Acuna being tagged out at home.
▪ Brian McCann RBI double to left field, scoring Markakis from second.
▪ Intentional walk to Inciarte and strikeout to Soroka.
▪ And then, finally, the grand slam by Albies, which traveled 388 feet., off a four-seam fastball right over the heart of the plate.
“I just didn’t execute my pitch,” said Anderson, who had given up just three earned runs over 13 innings heading into Saturday. “They capitalized on it.”
Donaldson grounded out to end the frame.
The Braves (17-16) tacked on four more runs in the seventh on a base hits from McCann, Soroka and Albies.
O’Brien, who the Marlins called up earlier in the day after placing Garrett Cooper on the 10-day Injured List with a left-hand contusion, gave the Marlins (9-23) the early lead with two-run single to left field in the second that scored Jorge Alfaro and Berti, both of whom reached on Braves fielding errors.
The Marlins finished with just three hits on the night, all in the first four innings. It’s their 15th time with five hits or fewer through 32 games.
This story was originally published May 4, 2019 at 9:25 PM.
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