Miami Marlins shut out by Tampa Bay Rays again to spoil a strong Pablo Lopez start
The evolution of Pablo Lopez continued on Saturday night.
So, too, does the devolution of the Miami Marlins’ offense at their home ballpark.
Lopez gave the Marlins a stellar starting pitching performance, the second Miami received from its rotation against the Tampa Bay Rays in as many days. The offense? It once again was nowhere to be found in the Marlins’ 4-0 loss, their second consecutive shutout defeat to the Rays in as many days. Miami dropped the series opener 3-0 on Friday. The Marlins have now been shut out in three of their eight games at Marlins Park this year and were held to one run in another contest.
The past two losses come despite the Marlins (14-14) getting strong outings from both their starting pitchers. Sixto Sanchez, the club’s top prospect and the No. 24 overall prospect in baseball according to MLBPipeline, threw seven scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts on Friday.
Lopez, who has been the club’s de-facto ace for the past month after the pitching staff was hit hard by the team’s COVID-19 outbreak in Philadelphia after the first weekend of the season, followed with his own dominant performance. The 23-year-old held Tampa Bay to two runs on six hits over seven innings. Lopez struck out five and did not issue a walk.
“I felt like that was the best Pablo’s thrown,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “... I thought he was really good all night. He was able to use all his pitches. His sequences were really good.”
The two runs he gave up came in the sixth and seventh.
In the sixth, Rays catcher Michael Perez hit a one-out single to left and designated hitter Austin Meadows followed with a double to right to put runners on second and third with one out. Lopez got Brandon Lowe to fly out to shallow left for the the second out of the frame before Yandy Diaz hit a slow chopper down the third-base line for an RBI infield single.
Kevin Kiermaier gave the Rays (23-11) an insurance run in the seventh with a two-out RBI single to score Joey Wendle, who doubled two batters earlier.
The Marlins bullpen gave up two more runs in the eighth after Alex Vesia and James Hoyt loaded the bases before Wendle hit a two-out ground-rule double.
Through seven starts, Lopez’s ERA is 2.10. Only seven starting pitchers have better ERAs than Lopez through Saturday: The Cleveland Indians’ Shane Beiber (1.35), the Atlanta Braves’ Max Fried (1.35), the Chicago Cubs’ Yu Darvish (1.47), the Texas Rangers’ Lance Lynn (1.59), the New York Mets’ Jacob deGrom (1.80), the Cincinnati Reds’ Sonny Gray (1.94) and the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Zac Gallen (2.09).
But like Sanchez on Friday, the offense gave Lopez no run support. The Marlins tallied just three hits on Saturday. Their only real scoring opportunity came in the sixth. Miguel Rojas hit a one-out double down the left-field line to chase starter Josh Fleming and moved to third on a Ryan Thompson two-out balk. Jonathan Villar, however, grounded out to end the inning.
“It’s part of a season,” Mattingly said. “There’s times when your offense is out there swinging the bat and we’re giving up runs and you win 12-10 or things like that. Then there’s times when you’re pitching great, but you’re not putting up runs and that’s frustrating for everyone. It’s just kind of a wave of a season, but any time that it’s happening in a short run like this, obviously it’s frustrating. You’re getting good outings but you’re not able to do anything with it.”
This and that
▪ Three more Marlins players who were on the COVID-19 injured list returned to the active roster Saturday in catcher Chad Wallach, Vesia and right-handed pitcher Robet Dugger.
To make room for them on both the active and 40-man rosters, the Marlins optioned pitcher Humberto Mejia to their alternate training site in Jupiter and designated left-handed pitcher Josh D. Smith, right-handed pitcher Brett Eibner and catcher Brian Navarreto for assignment.
▪ First baseman Jesus Aguilar sat out his second consecutive game with back stiffness. Lewin Diaz continued to start at first base in his absence while Garrett Cooper handled designated hitter responsibilities.
▪ Sandy Alcantara, the Marlins’ Opening Day starter and a 2019 All-Star, is slated to start Sunday’s series finale against the Rays.
This story was originally published August 29, 2020 at 8:58 PM.
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