Marlins battle all day, fall short yet again in extras

[Nate Karzmer]

The 20,223 fans at loanDepot park on Saturday were treated to an exciting albeit tough Marlins loss. Traded from Miami to San Diego earlier this season, Luis Arraez recorded the game-deciding RBI while Tanner Scott earned the save.

MIAMI, FL—Midway through, Saturday afternoon’s matchup between the visiting San Diego Padres and the Miami Marlins looked very familiar. Back in late May, knuckleballer Matt Waldron led his team to a 4-0 win after stifling Miami’s lineup for six scoreless innings. Facing a vastly different set of hitters in this rematch, Waldron had comparable results and had mowed down the Marlins entering the bottom of the fifth inning, the only blemish being a Vidal Bruján solo homer.

The Marlins had other plans, though.

As soon as the lineup flipped to Xavier Edwards at the top, Miami’s bats exploded. Including Edwards, seven consecutive Marlins reached base, notably Jesús Sánchez and Otto Lopez, who both collected opposite-field doubles. When it was all said and done, the Fish batted around and tallied six runs on four hits, three walks, a hit by pitch, a sacrifice fly and walked out of the inning leading 7-3.

Marlins manager Skip Schumaker was naturally impressed with his offense’s ability to get to a guy like Waldron.

“We had a lot of good at bats against him," Schumaker said postgame. "That's not easy. I mean, he throws 90 miles an hour. That feels like it's 95-96 because of the knuckleball. If you're sitting on the knuckleball, it's just really effective. But we put (together) really good at-bats. I think Otto Lopez had a big hit. Jesús Sánchez had a really good day, and then Burger’s, just, you know, as hot as anybody in the league.”

San Diego entered the contest tied for seventh in MLB with 29 comeback wins on the season, including one just the night before. The Padres began chipping away in the top of the seventh with two runs courtesy of Luis Arraez and Jake Cronenworth off Declan Cronin.

The big swing the Padres were desperate for came in the top of the eighth of the bat of—you guessed it—rising phenom Jackson Merrill. The 21-year-old deposited a hanging sweeper from Anthony Bender into the seats to knot things up at seven. It was Merrill’s second game-tying blast in as many days.

“He's killing us, especially late in the games. It's not fun to watch. It was fun to watch before he got here, and it's not so much fun to watch right now, because it just feels like any time in leverage, he's just been the guy over there at 21 years old. It's just super impressive.” said Schumaker.

The Padres weren’t done in the eighth. After playing some small ball, the one and only Arraez came up clutch, just like he did so many times in a Marlins uniform, legging out an infield single to put his new club back in the lead, but not for too long.

Going back to July 1, Jake Burger has been one of the best hitters in the sport. During that span, Burger entered Saturday’s game slashing .293/.353/.650 with 13 of his 20 homers and has come up big countless times for a Marlins team that has needed him to. He did it once again with his team down a run.

Burger just pushed out his 21st shot of the year off, with the ball bouncing off the top of the wall into the Padres bullpen.

Burger appreciated the electric reception he received from the larger-than-usual loanDepot park crowd on his trip around the bases.

“It fired me up. You don't get a chance to hit a game-tying home run very often. Give a couple fist bumps, almost black out in those situations. And I think I turned to one of our trainers, and like, 'Dominican heritage night is electric.' I think every night should be Dominican heritage night, but, yeah, it was an unbelievable showing by our fans, and we heard everybody cheering for USA basketball when they won the gold medal there. So they got us a little more fired up as well.”

After a scoreless ninth for both teams, Schumaker turned to John McMillon in his team debut. McMillon did allow the placed runner at second to cross, but allowed no hits, as the run scored on an Arraez groundout to Jonah Bride at first base.

If the Marlins wanted to extend or win a game they fought so hard in, it would have to come against another friend turned foe that took the mound for the tenth, that of course being Tanner Scott.

Instead, after allowing a bunt single to Derek Hill to lead off the inning, Scott recorded three consecutive outs to secure a 9-8 win and series victory for his new team. The final out of the game was a strikeout of Burger.

"I’ve seen him do it all year, last two months, and he's as good as it gets…He's nasty. Hope I get another chance to face him, but he won that battle and we'll it leave at that,” noted Burger on his ex-teammate.

 

 

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Lost in the chaos is Marlins starter Roddery Muñoz, who enjoyed a solid start against the aforementioned deep Padres lineup.

“I assess this outing as a good one. Thank God. I believe we're showing improvement little by little and I'm happy I was out there. Competing and trying to help the team in any way we can and hopefully, we can continue that growth” said Munoz via translator.

Munoz found success with his offspeed and good command, as his slider and changeup missed Padres bats for most of the night. For the first time this season, Munoz walked nobody.

Schumaker was impressed with the young righty.

“I thought Roddery handled a really good lineup as good as he could and got outs when needed, like big, big-time outs when needed in leverage spots. Again, the no walks is a huge plus for him, and a lot of leverage in that lineup. So I thought five innings was really good for him, especially kind of a bounce-back type of outing.”

The Fish and Friars are set to complete their season series Sunday on SpongeBob Day at loanDepot park. Dylan Cease, who tossed the second no-hitter of the 2024 season a couple weeks ago, takes the mound looking to break out the brooms. Max Meyer toes the slab for Miami. Meyer ran into trouble in his last start against the Reds due to overreliance on his fastball and slider and indecent command. First pitch is scheduled for 1:40 ET.

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[Leo Armbrister]

Our depleted bullpen failed again and the tough thing to watch is Tanner Scott got the save. Well look forward to a lot of the same type of losses for the remainder of the season. My guess after this years fire sale the Marlins will not have very much to give away at next years trade deadline.

[THOMAS JOSEPH]

I really enjoyed the series this weekend, with credit to the Marlins for their resiliency. This is a hot and superior Padres team, that got all they wanted from the Marlins. The Padres leave with the series win but realize they could have easily lost it.  Kudos also to Schumaker, who finally has decided to extend the starters and see their mettle. Since the wins or losses mean very little, the overall evaluative aspect of the rest of the season is paramount.