11 strikeouts not enough for Ryan Weathers in Marlins loss

[Kevin Barral]

Ryan Weathers set another career high with 11 strikeouts on Saturday, yet he allowed four earned runs. Meanwhile, the Marlins offense was held scoreless.

MIAMI, FL—On a day that their batters struck out 11 times against Ryan Weathers and 16 times against Miami Marlins pitchers overall, the Texas Rangers won by a final score of 7-0. Michael Lorenzen and three relievers combined to shut out the Marlins and even the series.

The sweeper has been Weathers' best swing-and-miss pitch during his strong start to the 2024 season. This time around, he leaned more on his changeup. He generated 21 whiffs against the deep Rangers lineup, with the changeup accounting for 13 of them (the sweeper only generated three whiffs).

"We kind of used (the changeup) a lot the first time through the order," said Weathers. "The second time through, they didn't change their approach, and then the third time, they still weren't changing their approach. It was working out there, so we just kind of used it."

Overall, Weathers threw his changeup 37 times, matching a season high. The lefty has shown that he can switch up his pitch usage from one start to the next depending on the opponent.

Although Weathers set a career-high in strikeouts, he surrendered four runs off of nine hits. In the top of the third inning, he gave up an RBI double and a sacrifice fly to drive in two runs. In the top of the fourth inning, he gave up two more runs the same way he did in the top of the third. The last time a Marlins starting pitcher gave up four runs, but struck out ten was José Fernández in April 2016. The last Marlins starter to surrender four runs, strike out ten or more and not give up a walk was Ryan Dempster on July 7, 2000.

"I'll take that version of Ryan every day of the week," said Miami Marlins manager Skip Schumaker following the game. "A lot of the hits were on the ground. Seven singles...I'll bet on that all day and give us a chance to win."

Lorenzen's last start against the Marlins came in August 2023 when he was making his Philadelphia Phillies debut right after the MLB trade deadline. He went eight innings, giving up two runs off of six hits and struck out five. On Saturday, the Rangers starter was effective again, going 6 ⅓ innings of shutout ball, only surrendering five hits and two walks. He also struck out seven which matches a season high.

"It's a fastball, slider, cutter and changeup combination that just kept us off balance," said Schumaker. "There was not much hard contact. When we did have guys on base, we hit into double plays. I think we had first three or four innings we had some traffic and then hit into a couple of double plays. That was really the only time we had any threat, so there just wasn't much offense today."

The Marlins were held hitless from the fourth inning through the eighth inning, a drought that finally ended when Josh Bell led off the ninth with a double. This marked the fourth shutout win of the season for the Rangers.

After a six-hit night on Friday, the Rangers offense went for 13 hits. Both Marcus Semien and Corey Seager had three-hit games. Rookie Wyatt Langford and veteran Robbie Grossman tacked on two RBIs each and catcher Andrew Knizner had himself an RBI as well.

The Marlins and Rangers will go into a rubber match on Sunday afternoon. Trevor Rogers vs. Andrew Heaney will be the pitching matchup. First pitch will be at 1:40 pm and there is a Eury Pérez bobblehead giveaway at the ballpark as well.

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