Marlins' woes at Truist Park continue

Dating back to a season ago, in eleven games played at Truist Park, the Miami Marlins are now 1-10 against the Atlanta Braves following Thursday night's series opening 4-2 loss.

In the majority of those previous matchups, Atlanta's high-powered offense led the way, a theme that was prevalent yet again with Max Meyer on the bump for Miami.

After Meyer punched out Flipped Fish and new Brave Jorge Soler in the bottom of the first, Austin Riley, who entered the contest with 13 blasts in 70 career games played against the Marlins, took flight with an opposite field 342-foot solo shot to put Atlanta on top early. To make matters worse, the meat of the Braves order, spearheaded by Marcell Ozuna and 2023 NL MVP fourth-place finisher Matt Olson, also saw Meyer well. Ozuna took a poorly placed Meyer four-seamer—which plagued Meyer throughout the night—into center, followed up by an Olson two-run homer to give starter Charlie Morton an early 3-0 cushion.

Aside from the rough opening inning and additional homer off the bat of Orlando Arcia in the third, Meyer enjoyed a solid night and was able to persevere into a five-inning start. Per usual, the 25-year-old leaned on his wipeout slider the most, throwing it 40% of the time and racking up 8 of his 13 whiffs with the pitch. His aforementioned fastball, however, was less exemplary due to shaky command. Four of Meyer's seven hits allowed came on the heater including Arcia's moonshot.

Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said his starter "attacked the zone...He was really good through the next four innings. He had a tough first inning, that happens. It shows you what kind of mentality he has and to get through five was pretty impressive today." Meyer's seven strikeouts agains the Braves marked a career-high. Emmanuel Ramírez and George Soriano delivered scoreless innings in relief of Meyer.

Unlike his six earned-run performance against Miami in mid-April, Morton carved up Marlins bats all night aside from an unearned run in the fifth, a Nick Fortes sacrifice fly that plated the speedy Forrest Wall. "Uncle Charlie" struck out six Marlins, only walked two and collected five of his patented groundouts, two of them being double plays. Schumaker joked postgame about Morton's longevity and dominant curveball. "I faced him and he was tough ten years ago, and he's still doing it...he's still throwing 95, 96 mph down in the zone. He can throw it at the top as well...and a really good curveball...He was really good again tonight."

Following Morton's departure, the Marlins were able to scratch across another run in the seventh courtesy of the hot-hitting Jake Burger, who came into the game hitting .391 since last Friday's game in Milwaukee with three long balls. Burger scorched a single into the outfield to plate David Hensley.

Unfortunately for Miami, that's all they were able to get, as the back end of Brian Snitker's bullpen was lights out in the eighth and ninth, locking up the 4-2 victory for the Bravos.

Valente Bellozo is Miami's probable starter for Friday's game. In his last start on July 2 against the Red Sox before being sent back down to Triple-A Jacksonville, Bellozo went five innings and allowed five earned runs, but demonstrated solid off-speed, led by his sweeper, and a good cutter. Rookie Spencer Schwellenbach takes the ball for Snitker's club, riding high after a strong month of July. In his last start against the streaking Mets, Schwellenbach dominated with seven innings of shutout ball. First pitch is scheduled for 7:20 ET.