Luzardo flounders and Pepiot's dominance against Miami continues

[Kevin Barral]

Tuesday night marked arguably the worst start of Jesús Luzardo's career.

MIAMI, FL—The Miami Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays kicked off the 2024 Citrus Series, first with a two-game set in Miami. The Marlins sent Jesús Luzardo to face Ryan Pepiot. Although the Marlins did early damage against Pepiot, Luzardo ultimately gave up a career-worst nine earned runs and took the loss as the Rays defeated the Marlins, 9-5.

Luzardo returned from a brief injured list stint on May 11 and had been pitching well since then (1.75 ERA in four starts). This time around, he had more of the same success through the first three innings of work, but then everything went wrong.

"I feel like I lost my command overall and just not being able to locate the fastball as well as I usually am," said Luzardo following the game. "The slider as well. I feel like when I was falling behind, just kind of put myself in bad situations."

In the fourth inning, the Rays had runners on first and second with one out, Luzardo surrendered a three-run homer to Brandon Lowe to tie the game at three apiece. José Siri knocked in an RBI double to drive in one run, making it a 4-3 game.

Tampa Bay kept adding on in the fifth. Isaac Paredes and Lowe would both double to drive in two runs each. Five straight Rays batters reached base safely against Luzardo to force him out of the game after 4 ⅓ innings pitched (his shortest start of 2024).

"Couple walks, lead-off walk hurt him," said Marlins manager Skip Schumaker. "Didn't get the swing-and-miss with the changeup. I think that was probably the difference-maker today. He got beat on some middle-middle sliders that probably cost him as well. I just think that he didn't get the fastball at the top enough."

Luzardo allowed 11 hard-hit balls on the night with the top exit velocity coming from Jonny DeLuca at 108.8 mph. This was the second straight outing that he was unable to generate any whiffs with his four-seam fastball.

In 2023, former Dodger Ryan Pepiot dominated the Marlins. In his first start against the Fish, he went five innings, giving up one run off of three hits, one walk and struck out five. On September 7, Pepiot went eight shutout innings, giving up one hit and striking out three.

He entered this game with a 3.88 ERA looking to continue that success. Instead, in the bottom of the first inning, Bryan De La Cruz took Pepiot deep for a solo shot, taking a 1-0 lead. That was De La Cruz's tenth homer of the season and also marked three straight seasons of double-digit home runs. He also became the first Marlin to reach double-digit homers this season.

Josh Bell drove in the second Marlins run of the game on an RBI triple. That was his first triple as a Marlin, first since 2022 and the 18th of his career. Otto Lopez drove in the third run of the game on an RBI single.

Pepiot worked up to 36 pitches in just the first inning and the Rays even had to get somebody warming up in their bullpen, but he settled in well after that. The Rays starter ended his night going six innings, giving up three runs off of five hits, no walks and eight strikeouts. Skip Schumaker spoke to the righty's four-seam fastball prior to the game, and a couple hours later, Pepiot generated 13 whiffs alone with that pitch. In total, he generated 17 whiffs.

"I think that Pepiot was outstanding," said Schumaker. "For him to get in six innings was super impressive. Felt like one hitter away from maybe even getting into their bullpen and he ends up going six innings, so that was really impressive. He has really good stuff. He was at the top of the zone and we started chasing a little bit at the top and then getting away from what made us successful in the in the first inning."

The other Ray who made a huge impact was outfielder Randy Arozarena, who has noted multiple times he likes playing at loanDepot park. For the first time since May 20, 2022, Arozarena reached base safely five times in a game. He was hit by a pitch twice, walked twice and knocked a base hit. though he only came around to score once.

Miami found themselves in a favorable situation in the bottom of the ninth. They loaded the bases on three straight singles and the Rays summoned closer Peter Fairbanks. Fairbanks stopped their momentum right away when he struck out both Bryan De La Cruz and Jake Burger swinging and Josh Bell grounded out to end the game.

"It was good fight in the ninth," said Burger. "Get three guys on. Just couldn't capitalize. They're bringing in their closer, one of the best arms in the bullpen, and unfortunately we didn't get the job done."

With the loss, the Marlins move to 21-40 on the season while the Rays are 30-31. Braxton Garrett will take the mound against Zach Eflin, who is expected to be reinstated from the injured list prior to the game. First pitch is at 6:40 pm.

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