Miami Marlins can’t recover after Padres hit early grand slam. Takeaways from the loss
The Miami Marlins needed a starting pitcher on Monday against the San Diego Padres after they had to place Johnny Cueto on the injured list due to a viral infection.
So the Marlins called up left-handed pitcher Ryan Weathers, whom Miami acquired from the Padres just three weeks earlier in a deal that sent first baseman Garrett Cooper and right-handed pitcher prospect Sean Reynolds to San Diego, to face his former team.
The result was not what the Marlins had hoped for.
Weathers didn’t make it through four innings and gave up a second-inning grand slam to Ha-Seong Kim as the Marlins fell 6-2 to the Padres at Petco Park to begin a three-game series.
Miami (64-62) has now lost three consecutive games and five of its past six to drop to just two games above .500 for the first time since June 2. The Padres improve to 60-66 and have won three of four games against the Marlins so far this season after taking two of three games in Miami from May 30-June 1.
Here are three takeaways from the game.
Second inning does in Weathers
The grand slam was the end result of Weathers’ horrific second inning, but the lead up to Kim’s home run against him needs to be addressed.
Before Kim sent Weathers’ 96.6 mph four-seam fastball that just clipped the inside of the strike zone a projected 359 feet to left-center field, Weathers walked the bases loaded, issuing free passes to all three of the bottom-third of San Diego’s lineup (Luis Campusano, Garrett Cooper and Trent Grisham).
Beyond the one swing from Kim scoring four runs, Weathers only gave up one other run — a first-inning sacrifice fly to Manny Machado.
Machado, a Miami native who went to Brito High, also hit a solo home run in the fifth inning against Bryan Hoeing, who pitched the final 4 2/3 innings in relief of Weathers.
Marlins need production beyond Bell, Burger
The Marlins’ two position player acquisitions from the Aug. 1 trade deadline — first baseman Josh Bell and third baseman Jake Burger — once again proved their worth for Miami.
Both players had a multi-hit game against the Padres and were involved in both of Miami’s runs scored. Bell broke up the Marlins’ shutout with a solo home run in the sixth inning, his seventh home run in 18 games since joining Miami. Jake Burger hit a double later in the inning and scored on a Jesus Sanchez ground-rule double to cut Miami’s deficit to 6-2.
In 18 games, Bell is hitting .300 (21 for 70) with the seven home runs, three doubles, 12 RBI and 14 runs scored. Burger is hitting .373 (25 for 67) with six doubles, two home runs, 11 RBI and nine runs scored.
The rest of the Marlins lineup had just three hits on Monday.
Luis Arraez exits early
Marlins All-Star second baseman Luis Arraez left Monday’s game in the fourth inning with stomach cramps.
Jon Berti replaced Arraez at second base.
Arraez has played in each of the Marlins’ past 54 games, with his last day completely out of the lineup coming on June 18.
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