Fish drop middle game in Atlanta, fall to one over .500

[Louis Addeo-Weiss]

Each loss for the 2026 Miami Marlins is a dagger in their playoff aspirations, with Wednesday being no exception. Following their 4-1 loss to the division rival Atlanta Braves, Miami's season record now sits at 58-57, 2.5 games out of a wild-card spot in the Senior Circuit, a tough cross to bear following a trade deadline that saw the departures of Liam Hicks and Lake Bachar. With this defeat, the Marlins now own a lifetime 23-57 (.288) record since Truist Park's opening in 2017. Only the Pittsburgh Pirates own a worse winning percentage in that span (.258).

Making his 20th start of the season—matching a career-high set last season—Eury Pérez ran into trouble in the second, throwing 34 pitches and allowing a trio of runs. Atlanta would tag on a fourth run in the following inning courtesy of a Mauricio Dubón single.

Gutting through an otherwise mediocre outing, Pérez struck out nine in his five innings of work, falling to 5-9 on the year.

Reflecting on Pérez's outing postgame, manager Clayton McCullough took the glass half-full approach. "If his clunkers look like this, we'll be very encouraged with it," noted McCullough.

"There's a lot I can feel proud of. The ground balls I was able to induce and the fact that I was able to make it through five innings. It's a growing process...", said Pérez through interpreter Luis Durante.

 

Looking under the hood, Pérez had more than the five innings of work to be proud of, as he induced 18 swings-and-misses, aided in part by a near-unanimous bump in pitch velocities. While his start ERA of 7.20 would lead one to call his outing less than savory, the underlying metrics tell a completely different story, as evidenced by minuscule 0.70 and 1.92 FIP and xFIP.

Miami's lone run came via Joe Mack on a fifth inning ground out that plated Owen Caissie . Now with 34 RBI since arriving in the big leagues, Mack's total ranks third best amongst Marlins rookie catchers who started a minimum of 60 percent of their games behind the plate, trailing only 1995 Charles Johnson (39) and 2015 J.T. Realmuto (47). Through the series' first two games, Miami has gone 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position.

Bryce Elder, making his 12th career start against Miami, shut them down to the tune of 7 innings of 1-run, 1-hit ball, lowering his career ERA to 3.31 opposing the Marlins.

 

As they did in Tuesday's loss, the Marlins had late-inning comeback attempts thwarted by the Atlanta bullpen. After collecting a pair of hits against the conservative hit surrenderer Dylan Dodd, Miami would ultimately see this one end on an Otto Lopez first-pitch ground out to Austin Riley. Thanks to an 0-for-4 evening, Lopez's season batting average fell to .320, putting him .005 points behind former Marlin and three-time batting champion Luis Arraez in the NL batting title race. 

 

Looking Ahead

Miami will conclude their trip to Atlanta on Thursday in a rare game three nightcap. Janson Junk (5-6, 4.58 ERA) will square off against veteran left-hander Martín Pérez (7-6, 3.24 ERA). 

First pitch from Truist Park is slated for 7:15 pm EST.

 

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