Marlins shut out in extra innings by Rays, fall below .500 for first time since May
Jesus Luzardo pitched a stellar outing, but the Miami Marlins’ offense came up cold in a 3-0, 10-inning loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday at loanDepot park.
The Marlins drop to 66-67 and now have a losing record for the first time since May 25.
After the game went into extra innings tied 0-0, David Robertson gave up three runs on three groundball hits to the Rays (82-52) in the top of the 10th. Josh Lowe’s pinch-hit RBI single scored Jose Siri, Tampa Bay’s automatic runner to begin extra innings, to gave the Rays a 1-0 lead. Randy Arozarena then drove in two more with an RBI single of his own.
“It seems like nothing’s worked out for me since I’ve come to Miami,” said Robertson, who has given up 13 runs (10 earned runs) in 11 innings since being acquired by the Marlins in a trade with the New York Mets on July 28. “Hopefully, I’ll turn it around.”
Miami’s offense had just four hits and went 0 for 6 with runners scoring position. It was the team’s 10th shutout loss and eighth time in the past 10 games the Marlins scored two runs or fewer.
“We got a lot of balls on the ground today,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “Not a ton of hard contact. [Rays starting pitcher Zach] Eflin was good. Their bullpen is as good as anybody’s. We just couldn’t get anything pushed across.”
It spoiled a strong night for Luzardo, who threw six shutout innings, giving up just one hit and two walks while striking out eight. It was Luzardo’s second consecutive start in which he threw six scoreless innings and the fourth time overall he tossed at least six innings without giving up a run.
With eight strikeouts on Wednesday, Luzardo has 175 on the season. That’s the 16th most in franchise history in a season and second-most by a left-handed pitcher. Al Leiter, who struck out 200 in 1996, is the only southpaw in Marlins history with more strikeouts in a season.
Luzardo carried a no-hitter through 5 1/3 innings before giving up a double to Yandy Diaz into the right-center field gap.
It was the only hit Luzardo surrendered, and he stranded Diaz by getting Arozarena to fly out to center field and then striking out Harold Ramirez.
Other than that, Luzardo’s only spell of trouble came in the fourth when he walked both Diaz and Arozarena to begin the inning before retiring the next three batters to avert the jam.
“My body felt good, but they made me work,” Luzardo said. “I felt like there were some really good at-bats. Thankful, everything worked out for me.”
A.J. Puk, Andrew Nardi and Tanner Scott threw the next three innings out of the bullpen to keep the game scoreless.
Nardi entered with one out in the second after Puk walked the bases loaded and eliminated the threat. Nardi then exited the game in the eighth after being hit on the left hand by a Harold Ramirez comebacker. Scott took his place with runners on first and second and one out. He got Isaac Paredes to hit into an inning-ending double play and then tossed a perfect ninth to help Miami get to extra innings.
But then it all fell apart.
Up next
The Marlins will play a four-game series against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park beginning Thursday.
The Marlins are 7-2 this season against Washington but dropped two of three games to the Nationals last weekend in Miami.
This story was originally published August 30, 2023 at 9:14 PM.
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