Muñoz tosses one-of-a-kind start, Marlins still swept

[Nate Karzmer]

The top of the order excelled and Roddery Muñoz delivered the longest outing of his career, but neither were enough for the Marlins to salvage game three in the Space City.

Coming off an outing that was a step in the right direction—albeit against the lowly Chicago White Sox—Miami Marlins starting pitcher Roddery Muñoz had a tough challenge awaiting him Thursday night at Minute Maid Park in the form of the surging Houston Astros. Houston has not lost a series since June 10-12 in San Francisco, and their bats had already secured another series win against Miami, putting up a combined 13 runs in the first two games. While Muñoz did allow six runs to cross, just four of them were earned, and the 24-year-old gave the Marlins much-needed length, tossing 6 ⅔ innings on just 94 pitches. His offense put up eleven hits, but could only put three runs on the board due to an abysmal 1-for-10 night at the plate with runners in scoring position. Josh Hader went 1-2-3 in the ninth, locking down a 6-3 win and series sweep for the 'Stros.

After walking and hitting a couple batters led to runs in the first, second and fourth innings, Muñoz was able to pitch into the seventh after an efficient final couple innings of work. The righty threw just 30 pitches in his final 2 ⅔ innings of work even though he allowed another run via a sac fly in the fifth.

Marlins manager Skip Schumaker praised his starter for working out of tough situations, saying "I thought he did really good containing them...When they had guys on base, we could've gotten in much more trouble then what we did."

Muñoz's slider was effective, as the pitch was responsible for both of his two strikeouts and three of his eight whiffs. The same cannot be said for Muñoz's sinker, though, as Astros hitters saw the pitch well all night. Three of the six runs and two of the three doubles Muñoz allowed came on his sinker. The pitch was thrown sixteen times and generated zero whiffs.

According to Stathead, Munoz's final line is the first of its kind in MLB history.

At the plate, the outfielders at the top of Miami's lineup enjoyed solid nights.

Bryan De La Cruz got the scoring started just two batters in to the game with a solo shot into the Crawford Boxes. Thursday's blast was De La Cruz's second career homer against the team that signed and developed him.

Additionally, Jesús Sánchez doubled twice to bring his season OPS back up to .710, while Jazz Chisholm Jr. sent out his second homer of the series. Chisholm Jr. has upped his play since being brought up in trade rumors earlier this week and is back to being on a 20 homer/20 stolen base pace.

Elsewhere, Nick Fortes continued his dominance at the dish with runners in scoring position and two outs with an RBI single in the second inning. Fortes entered Thursday's contest with a .467 batting average in said situations (.147 BA in all other situations).

Schumaker addressed his offense's poor performance with RISP, saying "We had the right guys up with less than two outs, we just couldn't capitalize."

Out of the bullpen, Andrew Nardi completed the sixth following Muñoz's departure, and Tanner Scott did more Tanner Scott things with a scoreless bottom of the eighth.

Looking ahead, Miami travels to Cincinnati to face the Reds, coming off a sweep of their own against the Colorado Rockies. Yonny Chirinos gets the ball for Miami for game one on Friday night. Chirinos owns an ERA of 4.19 in four starts with the Fish. Cincinnati will counter with rookie right-hander Carson Spiers. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 ET.

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