Self-inflicted wounds in fifth inning lead to eighth straight Marlins loss

[Kevin Barral]

HOUSTON, TX - It isn't for lack of effort that the Miami Marlins have lost eight straight games. Most of the games have been highly competitive, with seven of the eight decided by two runs or less. Tuesday's 5-3 loss to the Houston Astros was because "we shot ourselves in the foot a couple times," manager Clayton McCullough said.

That started in the fifth inning. With Tyler Phillips on the mound, Lucas Spence grounded out for the first out of the inning and nine hitter Christian Vazquez reached on a throwing error from Javier Sanoja. McCullough took Phillips out of the game to avoid facing the top of the Astros lineup a third time.

Tyler Zuber entered the game to get the final two outs of the inning, and to his credit, he executed. Jeremy Peña grounded out and Yordan Alvarez struck out...except the Marlins weren't able to complete the out due to a wild pitch. Isaac Paredes followed with a three-run homer, giving the Astros a 5-1 lead they wouldn't lose for the remainder of the game.

"It's tough to give opponents extra outs and they were able to capitalize on that," McCullough said.

Overall, Phillips gave the Marlins 4 1/3 innings of work, allowing three runs (two earned) on five hits (one home run), one walk and two strikeouts. He surrendered a leadoff homer to Peña in the bottom of the first inning and an RBI double to Lucas Spence in the ensuing inning, giving the Astros a 2-0 lead.

"Threw a horseshit pitch to Peña," Phillips said. "Over convicted, tried to spin it hard and I spun it right into his barrel. Men on base in the second inning, lead-off walk is unacceptable. Gave up a hit to a guy I don't even know, good for (Spence). Can't be grooving stuff and getting into a 3-2 count. Didn't want to walk him, felt like a challenge and he got a hit. I settled in nicely, made pitches where I felt like I needed to."

In 25 appearances (10 starts), Phillips now has a 3.52 ERA, 4.55 FIP, 6.58 K/9 and 4.08 BB/9. Within those 10 starts, Phillips has completed five innings or more in half of those and is now reaching his career-high in innings pitched (77.2), which he will surpass in his next scheduled start.

"Going into the break, my arm was getting a little tired," Phillips said. "Every time you get close to your innings limit, your arm starts to catch up to you. It doesn't feel bad though. Went out there, I felt good to go. Been taking care of my body, did the best I can, doing good work with the trainers...I think the only thing for me tonight is if there was any fatigue or being tired, it was just after that long delay of nine days, and just keep building into it. I like the old school style of pitching, going deep into games. If it was up to me, I'd to throw 130 pitches every single time. I don't care how tired my arm is. Just gotta keep doing your job until they take the ball from you."

For a second straight night, the Marlins struck out more than 10 times. In the series, opener it was 14 total strikeouts, and on Tuesday, it was 13. Xavier Edwards and Joe Mack both struck out three times. It marked the first time this season that Edwards had struck out three times in a single game. The Marlins also were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

A lot of credit needs to go to Astros starter Tatsuya Imai, who in six innings of work, allowed one run on four hits and struck out eight. The lone run he surrendered came in the top of the fifth inning, an RBI double from Kyle Stowers, scoring Otto Lopez from first base.

Joe Mack gave the Marlins some life in the seventh inning, hitting his ninth home run of the season, a two-run shot. Mack now has a home run in back-to-back games. In 58 games this season, Mack is now slashing .243/.301/.438/.739 with nine home runs, 28 RBI and has a 101 wRC+. He also picked up his 18th caught stealing of the season, tying Milwaukee Brewers star William Contreras for the league lead.

"It's pretty cool to hear that," Mack said regarding where he ranks in caught stealings. "I think that I attribute it to just the catching department. (Craig Driver) just putting in the work every day and getting good pitches to throw; sometimes not getting good pitches, but making the most of it. Being an athlete is just doing everything that I possibly can to help out the team."

With the loss, the Marlins are now 52-50, only two games over .500. Their odds to make the playoffs, which were above 50% earlier this month, according to FanGraphs, have fallen all the way to 17.8% entering Wednesday. Despite the recent struggles, McCullough urges fans to not lose faith in the team.

“People that want to jump off [the bandwagon], I wouldn’t do it. Stay on there. We’re gonna get this thing back going. We got a lot of baseball left.”

The Marlins will send ace Sandy Alcantara out to the mound on Wednesday night in hopes of snapping the streak at eight, just like the 2023 team that made the postseason did three years ago. 8:10 pm first pitch.

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