How early pinch hit hurt Marlins in series opening loss to Rangers

MIAMI, FL - The red hot Miami Marlins welcomed the Texas Rangers to kick-off a three-game set, but also welcomed the Tartan Army. This is a group of Scottish soccer fans supporting the national team during their World Cup run. Unfortunately, the support of 20,008 fans was not enough as the Marlins fell by a final score of 4-3.

It was assumed up until the day of the game that right-handed pitcher Kumar Rocker would get the start. The day of the game, the Rangers went with left-handed reliever Tyler Alexander to open the game. This is a strategy that multiple teams have employed this season against the Marlins, most notably the Washington Nationals and Tampa Bay Rays.

Alexander has only gone two innings or more three times this season. Despite that, the Marlins opted to start Esteury Ruiz, assuming that maybe Alexander would go two innings, meaning he faces Ruiz once. Well, the Marlins thought wrong. Kumar Rocker entered the game to begin the second inning and Marlins manager Clayton McCullough leaned into the splits, pinch hitting Ruiz and going with Owen Caissie when Ruiz did not even take an at-bat.

"If Rocker was going to start the game pitching, Owen would have started the game," McCullough said, "and I liked Owen, with that more sinker/slider mix to take those at bats, and when Rocker came in near that point, while strange, maybe felt like it was still going to get Owen a better matchup than Ruiz on Rocker."

The Marlins later opted to pinch hit for Caissie in the bottom of the seventh, where Ruiz could've been utilized given his ability to get on base (.360 OBP) and make things happen on the base paths (14 stolen bases). Instead, the Marlins went with Leo Jimenez, who following Monday's game, is slashing .182/.281/.208/.489 with two extra base hits and a 44 wRC+.

So far against left-handed pitching, Caissie is 6-31, but at 23 years old, the Marlins are treating the former top prospect as a platoon player, which is not and should not be seen as his ceiling. Going into Monday, since May, Caissie is slashing .235/.310/.469/.779 with six home runs and 25 RBI. At some point, the development of Caissie to see if he can become an everyday player needs to be taken into account, and on Monday night, it was not.

"I think this is more how we go into games trying to win," McCullough said. "What's our best chance to win tonight's game, and so we'll continue to look at that with him and other guys as well."

After a rough start for Tyler Phillips on the road against the Philadelphia Phillies, he bounced back against the Rangers, going six innings, allowing two runs on five hits, three walks and four strikeouts. Two of his strikeouts came on his splitter, the most used pitch for him on the night.

The two runs he allowed came in the top of the fourth inning when Ezequiel Duran took him deep to straightaway center field, a two-run shot, giving the Rangers a 2-0 lead.

Xavier Edwards, who has been slumping these past couple of weeks, turned in a multi-hit performance, capped off by an RBI triple in the bottom of the sixth inning. He was sent home, but the throw came in right on time to get him out at home, making it a 2-2 game.

"I know he's been having a hard time lately," McCullough said. "He looked good tonight, especially with the triple, that was exciting. He's too good of a hitter. He's going to continue to scratch out some hits, and I believe he'll get on another real run, where he's stringing a bunch of them together."

Kyle Stowers' strong month of June continued in a late-game situation. Down 4-2 in the bottom of the eighth inning, Stowers got to lefty Jacob Latz, hitting an RBI double to put the Marlins within one, trailing 4-3. He is now slashing .231/.346/.538/.884 in June. With the loss, the Marlins fall to 40-39, one game out of the third and final National League Wild Card spot. Sandy Alcantara, who is four strikeouts shy of taking down Ricky Nolasco's record for most career strikeouts in franchise history, takes the mound on Tuesday at 6:40 pm EST.