Irksome eighth inning enough to sink Miami

MIAMI-Tuesday afternoon wasn't your average Marlins-Braves game.

While most matchups between these division foes find Atlanta simply overwhelming the team they have 'owned' for the better part of eight years, game two of four from loanDepot park saw Miami beat themselves in a frustrating 8-4 loss.

Footnoted by starter Braxton Garrett's three-walk first inning that saw Atlanta capitalize, multi-walk outings from Michael Peterson and Calvin Faucher set an already mighty Braves offense up perfectly to take back control. Notably, a one-out walk to a heavily slumping Ha-Seong Kim and a pair of two-out walks loaded the bases for Mauricio Dubon in the eighth with things knotted at three and two outs.

Dubon rolled a ground ball to Christopher Morel at first, who got pulled away from the base. Morel looked to second to get Ronald Acuna Jr., but neither Otto Lopez nor Xavier Edwards were there. Any chance Morel had to make a miraculous play back at first were stifled by Faucher being late to cover the bag. The back-breaking lapse was one-upped by two more insurance runs from Matt Olson, shifting all momentum to Atlanta and their tomahawk-chopping fans while draining their opponent.

Lopez took the blame for not covering second postgame, saying " I couldn't get there on time, but that was the way that it should have been done... it's tough to anticipate those plays because he's had a good hitting the ball that way, and he actually pulled the ball (earlier in the at-bat), so it's difficult to cover both sides."

"Watching it live, how far Morel had to go, the play at first was going to be difficult, just with the angle and how well Dubon can run and get out of the box."  Marlins skipper Clayton McCullough said of the play. 'I think him going to look to second he felt moving that way was probably his best chance. We just weren't able to beat Acuna to the base."

An early deficit didn't deter the Marlins' offense, who responded with three runs on three hits, including Xavier Edwards' sixth homer of his 2026 campaign and second in as many days.

The remaining eight innings, though, were mostly quiet. Outside of Esteury Ruiz' s sacrifice fly in the fourth and MLB hit leader Otto Lopez adding to his total with three more, the bats were lulled to sleep by the three-headed monster of Dylan Lee, Robert Suarez and Raisel Iglesias. Excluding Kyle Stowers' first-inning double, Miami was 0-7 with RISP, including in the seventh with runners on second and third with one away.

Déjà Vu?

Desperately searching for a bounce-back outing after a sideways return to the bigs, Braxton Garrett was tormented by the same uncharacteristic issues that showed their head a week ago in Minneapolis.

Just like his previous outing, Garrett instantly found himself in a bases-loaded, no-out jam following free passes to two of the first three batters he saw. Atlanta cashed in to grab the early 2-0 lead, but that would be all. Although Garrett was only able to get through three innings, improved location and conviction were enough to navigate them scoreless.

"A little bit better, still not good enough, obviously," said the southpaw of his afternoon. "I just went back to thinking like my old self, pushing towards first a little bit to keep my front side closed, because that's kind of been the problem," Garrett said of his adjustment after the tumultuous first inning. "Just the body wanted to go, go, go, go very fast, and just pushing out towards first cleans that up, and it felt natural. So, I can definitely take that away and build on it".

Shortly after the final out, Christina De Nicola of MLB.com reported that Garrett would be optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville. Garrett's spot in the rotation would not come up again until the finale of the Mets series on Sunday. Ryan Gusto and Bradley Blalock come to mind as the two likely options, but a splash call-up of FOF #1 prospect Thomas White is not completely out of the cards. For the time being, a relief arm is all but certain to take a short flight from Duvall County and join the bullpen.

Notes and (Non)-Quotes

- Anthony Bender became the first Marlin in franchise history to record a 'hidden perfect game' following his clean top of the fourth. Bender retired his past 27 hitters in order, showcasing a tremendous leap from his early-season woes.

- Miami tried their hand at an unconventional 4:10 weekday first pitch in hopes of drawing an after-work and after-school crowd. The experiment drew 7,521, a step down from the 6:40 average of 7,989.

- Morel and Faucher both declined to address the media postgame.

On Deck

The Fish have another chance to secure a crucial series split against their league-leading rival on Wednesday evening. In that one, 2024 Cy Young winner and nine-time All-Star Chris Sale goes opposite Janson Junk at the traditional 6:40 start time.