Jakob Marsee breaks out despite Marlins loss

MIAMI, FL — Jakob Marsee entered Tuesday's game struggling at the plate. He came into the game slashing .149/.279/.207/.486 for the season, but has remained in the Miami Marlins everyday lineup. The team's patience with him paid off with a three-hit game despite their 5-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.

There had been positive signs in Marsee's underlying stats. Despite the bad production, the center fielder was walking 14.4% of the time. He ranked in the 90th percentile among MLB hitters in chase rate and 96th percentile in whiff rate. He still has had a good approach, so eventually, the hits were going to fall for him.

"It's not like we were waiting on it, but we expect that," said Marlins manager Clayton McCullough. "Marsee is going to string together a good run. He's just too talented offensively. He does too many things well with how he controls the strike zone and I think it was just a matter of time. Hope he can take a night like tonight, where you get three knocks, and be able to build a little steam and move forward. Really good sign again to see him get to some heaters tonight for base hits."

Marsee hit his first home run of the season in leadoff fashion. It was also an unorthodox home run trot because he had to start running the bases when the ball was originally ruled to have bounced off the right field wall and stayed in play. He was thrown out at third base by Jordan Walker...until the umpires discussed it and correctly signaled a home run.

"Thought it was a home run off the bat," Marsee said. "I saw it hit the wall, but they didn't say anything, so I just kept running. Might as well get a triple, I guess."

It's the first leadoff homer for a Marlin since Xavier Edwards on Aug. 13, 2025 at Cleveland. Marsee was previously 1-for-20 when leading off a game.

The 110.9 mph exit velocity was a new season-high for Marsee and very close to the best mark from his rookie season (111.1 mph).

Marsee had singles in both the bottom of the fifth and ninth, but he was never driven in as the Marlins were 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position (Heriberto Hernández was responsible for that only hit).

"We had our chances, we did," McCullough said. "We ran a couple trail runners, ran ourselves into some outs there that you never know what may transpire after that. You're looking to try to give yourselves as many chances you can and we didn't, and we had some guys out there, but we didn't quite cash in."

Paddack, who through his last three appearances posted a 2.35 ERA, struggled against the Cardinals, allowing five runs on eight hits, one walk and struck out a season-high seven. The positive from Paddack's start is that six of the seven strikeouts came on his changeup. He mentioned that it was "probably the best it's been all year." His changeup generated seven total whiffs and landed four times for a first-pitch strike.

However, things went wrong right away in the top of the first inning. Alec Burleson drove in JJ Wetherholt to take an early 1-0 lead. In the top of the third, Burleson reached on a fielder's choice because Connor Norby aggressively went for the play at home and was unsuccessful, giving St. Louis a 2-1 lead. In the top of the fourth inning, Nathan Church hit his second home run of the season. It was a two-run homer that went 370 feet to right field. A Nolan Gorman base hit drove in the fifth run.

"I tip my cap to that offense," Paddack said. "I feel like they put together some really good swings on some tough pitches. I was looking in between pitches with Rob (Marcello) and (Daniel Moskos) there just like, 'Man, that pitch is out of the zone,' or 'That pitch is exactly where we wanted it and they put a good swing on it,' especially Burleson and (Masyn) Winn. That was my game plan, and they were able to beat us to it."

Paddack surrendered nine hard-hit balls and the Cardinals combined for a 89.4 mph average exit velocity. Through five appearances (four starts), he has a 6.37 ERA, though his 4.63 FIP, 3.52 xFIP, 9.37 K/9 and 2.25 BB/9 suggest that he has been a little bit unlucky.

The Marlins fall to 11-13 on the season and now go into a rubber match with Janson Junk on the mound at 12:10 pm.