Dodgers slug, pitch their way past Miami

After the Marlins' first taste of the 2024 superteam Dodgers resulted in a four-home run barrage in Monday's 6-3 defeat, Jazz Chisholm Jr. only needed one pitch to get the ball rolling for Miami.

Facing Yoshinobu Yamamoto—the Dodgers' $325M arm—newly anointed leadoff man Chisholm vaulted the opening salvo 96 mph fastball 404 feet over the right-center wall to give the Marlins an early 1-0 lead. Despite an offense polling near or at the bottom of most offensive categories, Miami's 32 first-inning runs rank tied for third-highest in the big leagues. 

But oh, how misleading can a game's early going be. For these Marlins, no lead is ever safe, even more so when depending on Edward Cabrera to protect that lead against a Dodger team 12-2 in its previous 14 games.

As inundated are we with the 95 mph changeups that best many pitchers' fastballs, too are we with Cabrera's clinical lack of command of the strike zone, and on Tuesday, we were present to more of the same.

After loading the bases via a sequence of walk-hit-by-pitch-walk, Max Muncy—the owner of a three-homer game on May 4—took one of the few Cabrera offerings to grace strike zone over the left field wall for his sixth career grand slam. Following a two-walk bottom of the second, manager Skip Schumaker had seen enough from his right-hander, Cabrera's final line indicative of a pitcher seemingly still unable to harness his raw stuff: 2 IP, 1 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 1 K

Though a sound decision to remove a pitcher whose strike zone mirrored that of a chemically altered-Doc Ellis, the recently recalled George Soriano would not fare much better.

Allowing a hit-by-pitch, double, and walk before Andy Pages plated the fifth L.A. run on a sacrifice fly, an errant throw from catcher Christian Bethancourt rolled down the third base line, allowing Muncy to score from second. Three pitches later, Gavin Lux would conclude the eventual plate appearance with his first home run of the season, the Dodgers now holding an 8-1 stranglehold over Miami. 

While Bryan De La Cruz would tag him for his team-leading seventh home run of the season with a solo shot in the 6th, the aforementioned Yamamoto further proved exceptional, striking out 5 over 8 innings of 2-run ball in the Dodgers 8-2 win. Excluding his 1-inning, 5-run drumming he suffered in his big league debut against the Padres in Seoul back on March 22, Yamamoto owns a 1.76 ERA In 41 innings since coming stateside. 

With the loss, the Marlins fall to 10-28, their worst 38-game start to a season in franchise history. Miami are currently playing at a 42-win pace, a mark that would be the second-fewest for a full-length MLB season since the start of the expansion era in 1961, trailing only the 1962 New York Mets, who won just 40 games in their inaugural season. 

Of Note

- Unenviable record: Tuesday marked Edward Cabrera's fourth career start with at least 4 walks and 1 or fewer hits allowed, the most of any pitcher in franchise history. 

- With the loss, Miami falls to 99-124 all-time against the Dodgers. Since the start of the 2021 season, the Marlins are 8-14 against L.A.

- Yamamoto becomes the fourth pitcher this season with a start of at least 8 innings pitched and 0 walks allowed against the Marlins. The feat was only accomplished four times between 2022-2023. 

Looking Ahead

Miami will conclude their west coast road trip Wednesday when they close out their series against the Dodgers at 3:10 EST. Ryan Weathers (2-3, 4.54 ERA)—the owner of a career 4.66 ERA in 5 games against L.A.—squares off against Gavin Stone (2-1, 4.06 ERA) in the series finale.

The Marlins will have Thursday off as they travel home to commence a brief 3-game, weekend homestand against the Philadelphia Phillies.