Marlins bullpen drops second straight game as Braves finish off sweep in 10 innings
For so much of the early part of the season, the Miami Marlins’ bullpen appeared to be a strength. There wasn’t a collection of household names, rather a collection of untested power arms and they often rose to the challenge when a young starting rotation couldn’t go deep into games.
Their run of success ended this weekend at Marlins Park when the Atlanta Braves came to town. On Saturday, Nick Anderson and Tyler Kinley melted down on the way to a blowout loss. On Sunday, Miami’s bullpen gave up the only runs — including two in the 10th inning off Tayron Guerrero — of a 3-1 loss to the Braves.
“I think we see inconsistency from Tayron,” manager Don Mattingly said. “If you’re going to be the closer of the future, then you’ve got to go out every time and be aggressive and let it fly.”
After neither side could manage a run against the opposing starting pitcher, both offenses came alive to varying degrees in the late innings. Atlanta started with a solo home run in the seventh. The Marlins (9-24) answered with a run in the eighth to force extra innings. Then the Braves (18-16) got to Guerrero. Atlanta scored scored two runs off Guerrero (1-1) in the 10th inning to finish off a sweep in front of 11,885 in Miami.
Guerrero, who has now allowed at least one earned run in four of his last five appearances and multiple in back-to-back, created his own trouble with a leadoff walk to third baseman Josh Donaldson, whom Atlanta replaced with pitcher Max Fried as a pinch runner. Outfielder Ender Inciarte followed with a double to left and catcher Chad Wallach couldn’t gather a short-hopped throw to the plate. Fried scored to put the Braves ahead, then Inciarte went home on a sacrifice fly for an insurance run.
“I thought Tayron, after the walk, was really good because he was aggressive,” Mattingly said. “He was on the attack and if you get hit like that then you live with that and he was on the attack in the zone, he was throwing 100, he was aggressive.”
After back-to-back losses by their bullpen, the Marlins now have the second worst bullpen era in the National League.
Outfielder Nick Markakis finally jump-started the Braves’ offense once they got into the bullpen. Starting pitcher Pablo Lopez threw six shutout innings for Miami before Mattingly lifted him for Drew Steckenrider to start the seventh. Markakis promptly launched a solo homer to right off the relief pitcher to lead off the frame and give Atlanta a 1-0 lead.
Steckenrider has now given up six home runs this season.
“We’ve been searching for it for the last couple weeks now,” he said of his homer issue. “That pitch tonight was right where it was supposed to be. If I could’ve walked up there, that’s right where I would’ve put it.”
The Marlins needed one inning to settle in against the Braves’ relievers after starting pitcher Julio Teheran threw six shutout innings of his own. Atlanta turned to Josh Tomlin with one out in the bottom of the seventh to face the top of Miami’s order. The Marlins countered by inserting versatile infielder Jon Berti as a pinch hitter for outfielder Curtis Granderson and Berti laced a single to center. Corner infielder Martin Prado followed with another single to center, then slugging third baseman Brian Anderson ripped a single to left to tie the game at 1-1. After managing only two hits in the first seven innings, Miami more than doubled its total in three batters.
It was, however, all the Marlins could manage. Tomlin (1-0) got infielder Miguel Rojas to ground into a double play to end the inning, then pitched a 1-2-3 ninth. Fellow relief pitcher Luke Jackson, a graduate of Calvary Christian Academy in Fort Lauderdale, entered for the 10th and threw another scoreless inning for his second save of the season.
“We pitched good enough today to win. We weren’t able to put runs on the board,” Mattingly said. “We have to get over that hump.”
This story was originally published May 5, 2019 at 4:40 PM.