JJ Bleday hits first MLB home run, but Miami Marlins fall to Cincinnati Reds
.JPG "Miami Marlins starting pitcher Braxton Garrett throws during the first inning of the team’s baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday, July 27, 2022, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Jeff Dean)")
Rookie outfielder JJ Bleday hit his first career MLB home run, but it wasn’t enough to help erase Braxton Garrett’s rough first inning in the Miami Marlins’ 5-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday at Great American Ball Park.
Bleday lifted a 1-1 changeup at the bottom of the strike zone from All-Star Luis Castillo, the top starting pitcher on the market as the MLB trade deadline approaches on Tuesday, and sent it a projected 366 feet to right field, where it landed in the Marlins’ bullpen. It was Miami’s second home run of the game, with Nick Fortes also hitting a solo shot to lead off the third inning.
It came a day after he went 0 for 5 with two well-struck balls dying on the warning track, mere feet from being home runs.
“I feel good,” said Bleday, who is hitting .235 with an .807 OPS through the first five games of his MLB career since making his debut on Saturday. “I’m still kind of getting my bearings, but overall, I feel really good. I feel like I’m aggressive and I feel like I have a good game plan against these guys and I’m able to try and execute and stay focused and clear-minded. The main this is just stay aggressive. Be ready to swing.”
READ MORE: JJ Bleday’s MLB debut with the Marlins has come and gone. Now ‘the real work begins’
Miami (46-52), however, was playing from behind all game. Garrett needed 36 pitches to get out of a first inning in which the Reds (38-59) scored four runs on five hits and a walk. All three run-scoring hits came with two outs. Two of those hits — a Kyle Farmer two-RBI double and Donovan Solano RBI double — came with two strikes. Matt Reynolds followed them with an RBI single.
“That’s tough,” Garrett said of the two-out hits. “It comes down to execution. I’ve been pretty good with my two-strike pitches recently, but at first it wasn’t quite there.”
Garrett settled in after that, allowing just one run the rest of the way and striking out eight batters overall.
But the deficit was too large for the Marlins erase.
Fortes and Bleday gave Miami two runs with their solo home runs in the third and fourth. The Marlins scored another in the seventh on Jesus Sanchez’s RBI double that scored Lewin Diaz, who led off the inning with a walk and moved to second on a Willians Astudillo single.
Miami’s chance to rally in the seventh stopped there, though, as Castillo struck out Fortes, Luke Williams and Joey Wendle to strand the runners.
“I liked where we were at there,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “All of a sudden, we’ve and their guy just beared down. I know he’s the talk of this trade deadline market. You see why right there. You could see him really bear down and went to another level to get those strikeouts.”
This and that
▪ Huascar Brazoban, who at 32 years old made his MLB debut on Sunday, threw two scoreless innings of relief with five strikeouts.
▪ Shortstop Miguel Rojas was not in the starting lineup for a second consecutive game after he felt something in a back muscle during his pregame warmup routine Tuesday.
“I wanted to give him another day,” Mattingly said. “Hopefully, we get through it.”
▪ Left-handed pitcher Jesus Luzardo threw 75 pitches over 4 2/3 innings in a rehab assignment start with the Triple A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp on Wednesday. Luzardo allowed two runs on three hits and four walks while striking out six in the outing.
This story was originally published July 27, 2022 at 9:15 PM.
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