Marlins now the only winless MLB team after blowing another late lead

[Nate Karzmer]

The Marlins were just nine outs away from ending the nightmare start to their 2024 season before everything came off the rails, yet again.

On a day that could've been a fresh start for the Miami Marlins, Thursday's game in St. Louis featured the same themes that have kept them winless more than a week into the 2024 season. The Marlins held leads of 4-1 and 5-3, but after a five-run seventh inning from the Cardinals, they could not mount a comeback and dropped the first game of the series by a score of 8-5. This loss puts Miami at 0-8, and after the Mets walked off the Tigers this afternoon, they're left as the only winless team remaining in MLB.

Busch Stadium was buzzing at a rate even higher than usual as the Cardinals and their fans celebrated their home opener. As a member of the 2011 World Series-winning Cardinals team, Marlins manager Skip Schumaker got arguably the loudest ovation as the teams were introduced for pregame introductions.

Schumaker handed the ball to Ryan Weathers, hoping to bounce back after a disappointing first start against the Pirates where he went four innings, allowing seven hits and three earned runs.

Weathers' final line for his second start was better: 5 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 6 SO, 1 HR, 85 NP. The young lefty's second start was overall more encouraging than his start from last weekend, as he showed his ability to get out of a few intense situations with RISP. Weathers used his fastball and sweeper 64 times out of the 85 pitches he threw, with his fastball topping out at 98.2 mph and his sweeper registering six swings-and-misses.

The Cardinals got the scoring started with an Iván Herrera solo home run to left field in the bottom of the second inning, with Herrera depositing only one of eight sinkers that Weathers threw into the seats.

The Marlins offense that put up just three runs in their last two games took only two innings to respond this time. The response came from none other than childhood Cardinals fan and St. Louis native Jake Burger. With multiple family members in attendance for his Busch Stadium debut, Burger launched a 403-foot homer off Cardinals starter Lance Lynn. Members of the Burger crew that were in attendance were shown on the broadcast absolutely loving the moment.

The fun wouldn't end there for Burger, either, as in the next inning following a Josh Bell two-run blast, Burger made it back-to-back homers. While his first one was off a low-and-in sinker, his second was off a fastball, this time up and in. Miami jumped out to yet another lead early in a game, this time up 4-1 in the top of the fifth.

However, anybody who has watched this team just a week into the season knows that the issue has not been getting leads in most games: it has been holding them. It only took the Cardinals about ten minutes to get two of those runs back after a throwing error from Luis Arraez and timely hitting from who else but Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado.

In top of the sixth, newly acquired Tim Anderson essentially produced a run on his own, hitting a single, stealing second and scoring on a wild pitch to give the Marlins a run back.

The next six outs were smooth sailing for both sides, before it was the Cardinals' turn to swing the stick for the bottom of the seventh. Sixto Sánchez came into relief for Anthony Bender with just nine outs left to finally end the disaster that has been the first week of the season.

What ensued, however, was just that. After getting Victor Scott II to fly out, Paul Goldschmidt reached on another error from Arraez. As is usually the case in baseball, it came back to bite the Marlins. The Cardinals got back to back hits to chase Sánchez out of the ballgame and bring the game to within one. Skip Schumaker turned to usually reliable Andrew Nardi—who has not been his 2023 self, along with the rest of the Marlins—with runners on first and second. Unfortunately for Miami, Nardi did not start his turnaround today. On the first pitch of his outing, Cardinals 2B Nolan Gorman took a sinker to the right field line, tipping off Jesús Sánchez's glove and rolling to the wall, putting the Redbirds up 6-5.

Nardi allowed two more hits before getting out of the inning including a Masyn Winn triple. The Cardinals took an 8-5 lead, leaving the Marlins with just six outs to save themselves from an 0-8 start. Instead, the Marlins went down in order in both the 8th and 9th, losing 8-5 and cementing themselves as the first team since the 2016 Minnesota Twins to start a season 0-8. Those Twins are also the last team to start a season 0-9.

The Marlins have an off day Friday before resuming the series on Saturday at 2:15 EST. Trevor Rogers toes the slab for Miami, with former New York Met Steven Matz doing the same for St. Louis.

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