Early Sixto struggles put Miami behind from the start as they drop finale

[Louis Addeo-Weiss]

The curious case of Sixto Sánchez continues to frustrate Fish.

Even the notion of "every dog has its day" applies to the worst teams in baseball. For the Marlins, the season-best four-game winning streak they carried into Sunday felt to be their day, so to speak.

Trailing 4-3 with two outs in the top of the ninth, Anthony Bender—the owner of seven consecutive scoreless appearances entering play—had Miami well-positioned to threaten a second late-game comeback in as many days.

Brandon Nimmo had different plans in mind. On a 1-1 changeup from Bender, Nimmo took the ball on a 395-foot trip over the right field wall of loanDepot park for a two-run home run that added crucial insurance for the Mets. 

Post-Nimmo blast, the wheels would completely fall off for Bender and the Fish, as next batter Starling Marte would be hit on the next pitch. Tyrone Taylor and Brett Baty would immediately follow him with singles of their own, with the latter plating the Mets' seventh run of the day in their 7-3 victory to salvage the final game of their three-game set versus Miami. 

Snapping their four-game winning streak, the Marlins fall to 15-33 on the season. Their collective 5.00 ERA is tied with the 2018 club for the second-worst mark through 48 games to begin a season in franchise history, trailing only the 1998 club (5.37). 

To their misfortune, though, the Marlins had spent all game playing from behind thanks to another rough outing courtesy of Sixto Sánchez. Though he would overcome adversity via a 40-pitch, 4-run top of the first that saw New York's entire starting lineup come to the plate and give the Marlins 4 innings, overall takeaways from his latest outing were largely anything but positive.

"That's unacceptable in the first inning," noted manager Skip Schumaker. "We had a heart-to-heart underneath....but he's put us in a hole early at this level. He's not giving his teammates a chance to win."

Accompanying Sánchez in his first-inning struggles was the apparent lack of velocity, with his fastball sitting 87-92 mph before returning to its more familiar 94-96 territory as the inning and outing went on. For the day, all four of the right-hander's pitches were clocked below their season averages.

"I've seen what everyone is seeing. He gets in trouble in the first inning, and after that, he pitches like Pedro Martinez," noted Sánchez's catcher Christian Bethancourt. 

Miami would claw back early, though, thanks to Dane Myers, whose first home run of the season and just the second of his career cut the deficit to two. 

This would be all the damage allowed by Sean Manaea, who worked 5 innings of two-run ball in the New York win.

Bethancourt would get to Jake Diekman in the bottom of the seventh for his first career Marlins home run. Since starting the season 1-for-33, Bethancourt has hit .304/.333/.522/.855 in the month of May.

Ahead of Bender's ninth-inning meltdown, Miami's bullpen had worked 3 ⅓ scoreless frames, accompanying the 3 scoreless innings thrown by Sánchez between the second and the fourth. 

 

Of Note

- Sixto Sánchez now owns a 19.80 ERA in the first inning this season, the highest such mark among pitchers to make a minimum of five starts.

- After a 2-for-4 day in the loss Sunday, Otto Lopez is now hitting .314/.375/.571/.946 in May. 

 

Looking Ahead

Miami continues their homestand Monday as they'll host the Milwaukee Brewers in the first of a three-game series. Ryan Weathers (2-4, 3.81), fresh off a career outing where he threw 8 scoreless innings against the Tigers on May 14, starts game one for Miami. 

First pitch from loanDepot park is slated for 6:40 EST. 

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