Marlins swept by Orioles to open schedule following All-Star Break. Takeaways from the loss
So much had gone right for the Miami Marlins before the All-Star Break.
The clutch hits. The wild comebacks. The one-run wins.
They didn’t get those breaks during their first series of the unofficial second half of the season.
The Marlins were swept by the Baltimore Orioles, with the three-game set capped by a 5-4 loss Sunday at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Miami (53-42) dropped the first two games of the series 5-2 on Friday and 6-5 on Saturday.
This is just the third time this season the Marlins have been swept in a series. The other two were both by the Atlanta Braves (May 7-4 in Miami and June 30-July 2 in Atlanta).
On Sunday, the Marlins were shut out for the first eight innings before nearly completing a ninth-inning rally. Jean Segura’s one-out double to left-center broke up the shutout by scoring Garrett Cooper and Yuli Gurriel. Jon Berti hit a two-out RBI single and Dane Myers followed with an RBI double to bring Luis Arraez to the plate with the game-tying run in scoring position.
Arraez, however, hit a shallow flyout to left field to end the game and the rally attempt. Arraez went 0 for 5 on Sunday to drop his batting average back to .380.
“We always have a chance until the last out is made,” Segura said. “Today, we came up short.”
Here are three takeaways from the game and the series.
One of many measuring stick series to come in the second half
The Marlins are going to need to hope they can shake off this series against the Orioles (57-35).
Why? Because they are going to have many more matchups the rest of the way through their regular-season schedule against teams of this caliber or better.
Including these three now-completed games against Baltimore, 42 of Miami’s 70 games following the All-Star Break are against teams who either entered Sunday in a playoff spot or within two games of being in a playoff spot.
This doesn’t factor in three games against the San Diego Padres or six against the New York Mets, two teams who are still legitimate threats to make a late push for the postseason despite being seven-and-a-half and nine games out of a wild card spot, respectively.
All told, that’s 51 of 70 games — 72.9 percent — against top-tier competition down the stretch that Miami has to maneuver through if it wants to make the playoffs itself.
Fortunately for the Marlins, they built a cushion through the first half of the season, entering the All-Star Break with a 53-39 record that was the second-best in the National League.
Now, Miami needs to find a way to maintain that advantage as the competition stiffens.
Bullpen game backfires
Just three games back from the All-Star Break, and the Marlins already found themselves throwing a bullpen game.
Why was that?
They had Sandy Alcantara start the series opener on Friday and opted to split up their two left-handed pitchers, with Braxton Garrett going Saturday and Jesus Luzardo scheduled to pitch Monday against the St. Louis Cardinals. Luzardo is in the fourth spot in the rotation in order to monitor his innings (he’s at a career-high 109 1/3 already). Edward Cabrera, still on the injured list, threw five innings in a back-field game on Thursday, so he wouldn’t be on normal rest until Tuesday.
With Eury Perez in the minor leagues, Bryan Hoeing pitching out of the bullpen on Friday and Johnny Cueto beginning his return to the big-league roster in the bullpen (more on him in a second), that left Miami with a rotation void for Sunday.
So, manager Skip Schumaker opted for a bullpen game in the finale against the Orioles.
It didn’t go as planned.
Steven Okert, who served as the opener, faced five batters, giving up four hits and three runs to put Miami in an early hole.
George Soriano retired the first nine batters he faced but then loaded the bases on a walk and two hit by pitches before James McCann hit a chopper that bounced off shortstop Joey Wendle’s glove that was ruled a fielder’s choice and fielding error and allowed one run to score. Huascar Brazoban then replaced Soriano with the bases loaded and one out and limited further damage to just one run on a Gunnar Henderson sacrifice fly to put Miami’s deficit at 5-0.
Cueto, pitching in the big leagues for the first time since April 3 following a three-and-a-half month injured list stint first for right biceps tightness and then a left ankle injury, then tossed three shutout innings to get Miami through the seventh inning before Tanner Scott pitched the eighth.
But regardless of the pitching plan Sunday, the Marlins’ offense didn’t start providing support until it was too late. Miami logged just three hits over 7 1/3 innings against Orioles starter Kyle Bradish before stringing together a few hits in the ninth to break up the shutout bid and make the game interesting.
A chance to rebound in St. Louis
Schumaker has said all season his goal with each road trip is to go at least .500.
Even with how the Orioles series unfolded, Miami still has a chance to do that on its first trip of the second half of the season.
The Marlins close this six-game, two-city road trip with a three-game series against the Cardinals, who entered Sunday with a 39-53 record that is the third-worst in the National League.
The Marlins went 3-1 in their first series against the Cardinals earlier this season at loanDepot park.
This story was originally published July 16, 2023 at 4:22 PM.
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