Marlins fall to 0-6 as offense silenced by Angels' Tyler Anderson

MIAMI, FL —Still in search of their first win of the season, the situation was lined up perfectly for the Marlins on Tuesday: Jesús Luzardo on the mound against a team which he dominated in the past. Luzardo had another strong outing. However, Aaron Hicks ended up being the unlikely difference-maker of the night in a 3-1 Angels win. Meanwhile, the nightmare continues for the Marlins as they are now 0-6 this season.

In his second start of the season, Luzardo went 5 ⅓ innings, giving up two runs off of four hits and two walks. Hicks drove in both of those runs, first with a solo home run in the top of the fourth inning and then an RBI single in the sixth, which drove in Miami native Zach Neto who hit a double in his at-bat.

Luzardo's fastball/slider combo would work well, primarily the slider, which saw seven whiffs on 16 swings. Four out of the five strikeouts were on the slider, with the only other strikeout coming on a changeup. His four-seam fastball averaged 95.7 mph. He provided the Marlins with their longest start of the season to date.

The Marlins offense had their worst performance yet, being limited to only five hits on the night and none with runners in scoring position.

In the bottom of the second inning, Jazz Chisholm Jr. worked a walk and Tim Anderson singled. With runners on first and second with one out, Avisail Garcia hit a first-pitch changeup to the outfield, but Chisholm and Anderson had gotten big jumps trying for a double steal. It was a routine flyout. Chisholm had already crossed third base, and when running back toward second, he did not retouch the third base bag, causing an unusual double play for the team that has hit into more of them than anybody else.

A big reason why the Marlins struggled to get anything going was Angels starter Tyler Anderson, who went seven innings of shutout ball and struck out four in the process. Anderson's changeup ended up being what worked for him, recording all strikeouts with it, with three of them being swinging strikeouts. The veteran left-hander threw 59 strikes against only 24 balls.

"We knew he had a fastball/cutter combo going in," manager Skip Schumaker said postgame. "We knew he had a really good changeup. We knew it was coming at times as well and still swung at it out of the zone and a lot of weak contact to the pull side. He did a really nice job."

Schumaker also remarked on Zach Neto's impressive diving stop to rob Josh Bell of a hit: "He's gonna be a good player for a long time."

Bryan De La Cruz broke up the shutout by homering off of Luis García with one out in the bottom of the ninth. He's the fourth Marlins player to hit a homer on this homestand, joining Avisaíl García, Nick Gordon and Jazz Chisholm Jr.

With the loss, the Marlins fall to 0-6. They set a new season low in runs and matched a season low in hits. The New York Mets (0-4) are MLB's only other winless team.

In their final attempt to earn a victory in Miami before heading on the road, A.J. Puk will take the mound Wednesday afternoon opposite of Patrick Sandoval at 1:10 p.m.