José Ramírez sinks slumping Fish with multi-homer night

By way of only meeting once a year, the Marlins and their fans alike don't get to see much of Guardians superstar third baseman and seven-time All-Star José Ramírez. After Tuesday night's series-opening game at Progressive Field, perhaps that's a good thing.

For the first time since early June, Miami has dropped four in a row following a two-home run performance from Ramírez, the latter coming with two outs in the bottom of the eighth of a tied game off a Calvin Faucher cutter. The top of the lineup went down in order in the ninth, capping off their second subpar offensive effort in as many games in a 4-3 defeat.

Merely a week after completing their treacherous climb back to the illustrious .500 mark, the Marlins have fallen back to five games under.

The 32-year-old Ramírez not only concluded the fun at Progressive Field—he commenced it with 381-foot blast in the opening frame off Janson Junk. The subsequent Kyle Manzardo moonshot put Miami in an early hole.

After forfeiting an additional run in the second, Junk settled in for three scoreless innings courtesy of his patented spectacular command and ability to induce weak contact. Although the right-hander hasn't been as effective since returning from the All-Star break, an overall mark of a 4.06 ERA in fifteen games between starting and relieving is certainly serviceable from a player who broke camp on a flight to Jacksonville.

Junk's final line: 5.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO, 2 HR, 86 NP.

Sticking to their status quo, Miami's offense was able to catch up and knot the score at three following a fifth inning pronounced by two-out hitting. Big swings from the slumping Dane Myers and surging Heriberto Hernández were just what the doctor ordered for an offense that entered the contest having only mustered one run in their previous eleven innings.

The rest of the way, though, issues from the previous disastrous series in Atlanta persisted. Inability to cash in with runners on base plagued Clayton McCullough's group the rest of the way, with Agustín Ramírez being the lone Fish to record a hit. His attempt to drive in the potential go-ahead run in the form of Eric Wagaman was thwarted by Gold Glover Steven Kwan, who gunned down Wagaman at the plate.

Looking to avoid their third consecutive series defeat, Miami turns to Eury "Baby Goat" Pérez on Wednesday night (first pitch at 6:45). Dating back to July, the 22-year-old has lived up to the nickname and sky-high expectations, boasting a 2.06 ERA across 39 ⅓ innings.