Marlins unplug high-powered Nationals offense, snap five-game losing skid

[Kevin Barral]

 

The Miami Marlins finished the month of May on a five-game losing streak, losing two out of three to the Toronto Blue Jays and getting swept by the New York Mets. The final leg of the three-city road trip featured the Washington Nationals, who entering play on Monday had scored the most runs in baseball. On the flipside, they have the fifth-worst pitching staff in baseball, which the Marlins got to in order to snap their losing streak, defeating the Nationals by a final score of 7-3.

Nationals starter Cade Cavalli went five strong innings, striking out six. After allowing a bases loaded walk to Owen Caissie in the top of the first inning, he shutout the Marlins until the top of the sixth inning. He allowed a base hit to Leo Jimenez and was taken out of the game in place of Richard Lovelady.

Going into Monday, the Nationals bullpen had a 4.52 ERA, which is 22nd in MLB. They have also allowed the second-most earned runs (143) in baseball. In 17 appearances with the Nationals, Lovelady had a 2.25 ERA, but a 4.45 FIP.

With Jimenez on first, Clayton McCullough pinch hit Heriberto Hernandez to face the lefty. On the fifth pitch of the at-bat, Lovelady served up a slider that landed right in the middle of the plate and Hernandez took him deep to left field for his third home run of the season. It tied the game at three apiece.

For Hernandez, it marked his third career pinch-hit home run, with two of them coming this season. All three of his career pinch-hit home runs have come against left-handed pitching.

 

 

Lovelady proceeded to hit Jakob Marsee. A sac bunt from Joe Mack moved Marsee to second and Connor Norby drove him in on an RBI double, giving Miami the lead, 4-3.

In the ninth inning, the Nationals turned to Cole Henry, who in eight appearances had a 5.00 ERA. Liam Hicks hit his 12th home run of the season, making it 5-3. That would Mark Hicks' 46th RBI of the season, making it a new career-high for the 27-year old.

All-Star voting is set to open on Wednesday, and the main question for Marlins fans will be at which position Hicks will be listed. If it's at catcher, he may have a better chance of getting in. He currently leads all catchers in RBI, and is second in home runs, second in OPS, third in batting average, third in hits and entering play on Monday, he had the third lowest strikeout rate (9.2%) in baseball.

"Hicks has had a phenomenal season," Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. "He's been able to build off his strengths which have been his ability to control the strike zone and we have seen the difference this year. With the home run tonight, he was able to elevate the ball to the pull side with more regularity, which has led to some more home runs. He just takes good at-bats, you can trust him when he's up there and he's been a key part to our offense this year." 

 

 

Kyle Stowers finally seems to be getting it going as he hit his fourth home run of the season, extending the Marlins lead, 7-3. He is now slashing .221/.301/.379/.680 with four home runs, 13 RBI and a 90 wRC+. 

 

The Marlins were coming off a bullpen game in Queens where they trotted out six relievers, so Sandy Alcantara, who is coming off a month of May that he'd like to forget, needed to step up. On top of that, Eury Pérez, who is now on the injured list, is not going to be around until after the All-Star break and Janson Junk will also be out for some time.

 

Alcantara gave the Marlins seven innings of work allowing three runs on seven hits (one home run) and struck out three. Monday's start marked the fourth time this season that he completed seven innings or more and did not allow a walk.

"It's what I expect from Sandy," McCullough said. "He's going to eat up innings and he's going to give us a chance to win. That's what he's been doing now for almost a decade. Every inning that he is able to take down it's one less inning that someone in the bullpen is going to need to cover. We needed a big one from him tonight and he came through."

Alcantara got off to shaky start, surrendering a home run to outfielder Jacob Young in the bottom of the second inning, a two-run blast giving the Nationals a 2-1 lead. Curtis Mead laced an RBI single in the third inning, extending the lead, 3-1.

With the win, the Marlins are now 27-34 on the season, fourth place in the National League East and 5.5 games out of the third and final Wild Card spot. Although it is currently listed as a TBD for tomorrow, Fish On First can report that the Marlins are calling up Ryan Gusto to make his first start of the season. In 10 appearances (seven starts) in Triple-A this season, Gusto has a 3.83 ERA, 3.50 FIP, 10.48 K/9 and 3.43 BB/9. First pitch is at 6:45 pm EST on Marlins.TV.

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