For the second night in a row, Marlins hitters were kept quiet as a mouse after threatening early on. The only difference Tuesday night was that they scored a single run off Freddy Peralta. It was more of the same regarding the lack of strikes for Edward Cabrera. Let’s break it down.

Can’t Score Runs

The game got off to a great start as Luis Arraez tucked a leadoff home run inside the right field foul pole to give the Marlins a 1-0 lead. It was his second leadoff homer of the season, the fourth of his career. 104.0 MPH off the bat, 30° LA, 391 FT, HR in 30/30 ballparks. That exit velocity is the fastest registered on any Arraez batted ball this season.

Xavier Edwards singled with two outs in the second inning, and the Marlins did not put another man on base until Jon Berti walked in the eighth inning. They failed to register a third hit as Freddy Peralta carved them up for nine strikeouts in 6.1 innings. That walk came courtesy of Abner Uribe, who came on in relief of Hoby Milner with two outs in the 8th and then handed the ball to Devin “The Airbender” Williams for the ninth inning.

Can’t Throw Strikes

Following a scoreless first inning from opener JT Chargois, Edward Cabrera trotted out from the bullpen to pitch the second, and hopefully to stick around for the bulk, of the remaining innings. It didn’t look promising early on as he walked the first three batters he faced, struck out the fourth, and walked the fifth to tie the game at one. He threw 32 pitches in the first inning, only 13 for strikes. After the game, manager Skip Schumaker said they were nervous they would have to bring in another reliever from their exhausted bullpen that soon.

Luckily, Edward bounced back and only allowed one hit over the next 12 batters before walking two more in the sixth and being replaced by Andrew Nardi. That one hit, however, was a home run off the bat of Josh Donaldson. His final line: 4.2 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 6 BB, 5 K, 1 HR, 86/48 P/S.

After the game, the emphasis from Edward, Skip, Luis Arraez, and Jacob Stallings was clear: find the strike zone. They’ve tried multiple strategies to get Edward to settle in better when entering games, from using an opener to sending him down to the minors. But in the end, it all comes down to him not attacking the zone with every pitch. He starts to pitch around guys, and it snowballs out of control. He must figure this out if he wants to be an effective big-league pitcher, and the Marlins need him to do it soon.

A.J. Puk stranded the two walks with a strikeout in the sixth, then handed the ball to George Soriano after giving up a double, a single, and striking out one batter in the seventh. Soriano limited the damage to only one run on a sac fly and pitched a scoreless eighth inning.

All told, the Marlins dropped the game by the score of 3-1 in a crisp 2 hours and 28 minutes.

Noah’s Notes and What’s Next

• The Marlins have scored only three runs in their last 26 offensive innings.
• Christian Yelich missed his fourth straight game due to back stiffness.
• Though still only 1.5 games back of a playoff spot, the Marlins were leapfrogged by the Reds in the NL Wild Card race.
• Braxton Garrett will toe the rubber against RHP Trevor Megill on Wednesday at 6:40 PM CT as the Marlins will try to right the ship.
• ‘Til Tmrw!

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