Marlins end homestand with a loss, spoil Mazur’s strong start

The Marlins’ four-game winning streak came to an end Sunday, but they still found a bright spot in starter Adam Mazur’s performance.

Mazur delivered his sharpest outing since joining the big-league club, standing out as the clear positive in Miami’s 2-0 loss to the Tigers at loanDepot park.

The rookie right-hander pitched six innings of one-hit ball, yielding no earned runs while striking out four and walking two. He threw 83 pitches.

“I was happy with how I executed,” Mazur said. “I thought I was winning a lot of the 1-1 [counts] and getting to two strikes early, so that put me in favorable positions, and I was able to get outs today and give us a shot to win. Ultimately, the second inning ended up being the difference, but I was happy with how I’ve been pitching so far.”

“Terrific start,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. “He was incredibly aggressive going after the Detroit lineup. He had a good hard slider working, changeup, the sinker. He utilized his whole mix.”

Sunday marked the best of Mazur’s five starts with the Marlins and offered a glimpse of promise for the 2026 season.

“It’s just a building block,” Mazur said. “Obviously, it’s not done. It’s just a step in the right direction. Now you take this one against a really good lineup and you get ready for the next one and try to build upon it.”

Mazur entered the game having allowed 27 hits and 14 earned runs in 20 innings pitched across four starts.

“After my last start, [left-hander Ryan] Weathers and I kind of went over some pitch calls and looked at the game from a very basic [mind-set] and kind of dumbed it down,” Mazur said.

He added of being in the majors, “just learning about myself a little more has been good. I think it’s more about the days in between the starts than the actual start days.”

What will it take for Mazur to have sustained success in the majors?

“He’s going to have to throw strikes at an incredibly high rate,” McCullough said. “He’s going to have to be able to pitch to both sides and utilize quadrants of the zone as well as being able to land his secondary [pitches] and then be able to expand with that. We’ve seen an uptick in stuff from Adam this year. The velocity has been strong.”

The Tigers scored both of their runs Sunday in the second inning. Both were unearned as the Marlins committed three errors.

With Spencer Torkelson on first, Colt Keith’s grounder to first went off first baseman Eric Wagaman for the first error. Then second baseman Máximo Acosta chased down the ball in foul territory and threw wildly past third.

Left fielder Troy Johnston tried to run down the ball, but it went through his legs for the third error.

“Trying to make a play, threw it away, couldn’t stop it,” McCullough said. “We didn’t handle the ball one sequence there, threw it around, opened the door for them to score a couple and that ended up being the difference in this one.”

Meanwhile, the Marlins couldn’t score despite getting a baserunner in seven different innings. Javier Sanoja grounded out to end the seventh with runners at the corners. In the ninth, he struck out looking to end the game with runners on first and second.

“They made some pitches in crucial spots,” McCullough said. “We built some innings there, especially late and had our opportunities and we just didn’t come through.”

The Marlins ended their 10-game homestand with a 5-5 record, splitting a four-game series with the Nationals and taking two of three from the Tigers after dropping two of three to the Phillies.

“Great way to finish this homestand,” McCullough said. “It would have been nice to have gotten the win today and finished off a sweep, but to get two out of three against a very good Detroit team on the wheels of winning the last two against Washington, we feel good right now going to Colorado.”

This story was originally published September 14, 2025 at 6:19 PM.