Marlins extend season-long losing streak to seven games

HOUSTON, TX - The Miami Marlins free fall continued on Monday night as they fell 8-5 to a struggling Houston Astros team. A team that once stood 10 games over .500, comfortably in the third National League Wild Card spot and even in the fight for the National League East crown, find themselves once again fighting to gain sole possession of the third Wild Card Spot and sporting the longest losing streak in baseball at seven games.

Despite these struggles, Marlins manager Clayton McCullough does not believe that the pressure of competing for a playoff spot has been a factor, noting "that's something you guys bring up a lot" and calling it "a hot topic."

"I thought for the most part we pitched very well in Milwaukee, and they just outplayed us for for three days," McCullough said pregame. "I'm sure that the headlines will continue to be that, and I look at it like this stretch of games and losing over the course of an entire season unfortunately happens on multiple occasions. Right now we're going through it, and I think myself and our coaches are just much more concerned with getting our guys back to playing a better brand of baseball."

What should keep fans hopeful is what the 2023 Marlins looked like just three years ago. Coming out of the All-Star Break, they dropped eight straight games, standing at 53-47 before snapping the streak. That team finished the season with an 84-78 record, good enough for the second Wild Card spot. The National League may not require a high amount of wins to slip into the postseason, so that keeps the 2026 Marlins in a similar, but favorable spot.

Marlins starting pitcher Janson Junk described his season as "up and down." On Monday night, we saw the down of Junk's season, allowing six runs in four innings pitched, walking three in the process. All six of the runs allowed came in a 42-pitch bottom of the second inning.

With the bases loaded and one out, Junk had to face the top of the Astros lineup, starting with Jeremy Peña. He took Junk deep, for his second career grand slam, giving the Astros a 5-2 lead. Yordan Alvarez followed it up with his 32nd home run of the season, making it 6-2 after just two innings of work.

"I think the second inning, that's the story of it," Junk said postgame. "I don't really care that I came out after, went a few more innings and put up zeros. That's what I'm trying to do. Putting the team in a 6-2 deficit after we go up to with a big home run,  to have (the Astros) come back with a six-spot, that's pretty demoralizing."

Junk's biggest struggles have come with his command. In 2025, Junk surrendered 1.06 walk per nine, which was the lowest in baseball (minimum 110.0 IP). It is still low this season, at 2.61, but certainly a jump compared to where it was just one year ago. What hurt Junk the most in that second inning was walking the lead-off hitter, LaMonte Wade Jr. He walked three in that second inning.

"I think it could be just getting back into the groove, coming off the IL, you know," Junk said. "I think that's something I got like check mechanically, maybe just getting outside of myself a little bit and I think it's those leadoff walks. That happened a few times against the Mariners in my last outing, but I was able to come back from it. Tonight shows you that leadoff walks kill you, and I'll get better at that."

As an offense, the Marlins struck out 14 times, tied for second-most this season. One through six in the lineup each struck out twice. Astros starter Ronel Blanco took the mound for the first time in 429 days and struck out eight in 4 2/3 innings of work. The Astros bullpen combined for the other six strikeouts. On top of that, the Marlins went one for seven with runners in scoring position.

The Marlins' source of offense came from Joe Mack hitting his eighth home run of the season in the top of the second inning and Liam Hicks hitting his team-leading 14th home run in the fourth inning, both off Blanco. Heriberto Hernandez provided some signs of life in the ninth inning, knocking in an RBI single, but it was too late at that point.

"Three innings or so there, I think we we did a good job," McCullough said. "We talked about just trying to create some traffic and we just weren't able to come through with some hits with runners in scoring position. We'll continue to give ourselves those shots. That'll turn, I know that will. The strikeouts, it's something that's a little atypical of our group for the most part, but we've been piling them up here recently, so got to try to put the ball forward with a little more regularity."

With the loss, the Marlins fall to 52-49 on the season, still tied for the third National League Wild Card spot as the St. Louis Cardinals fell to the Los Angeles Angels after the Marlins game. Tyler Phillips will take the mound for the Marlins as they look to snap the losing-skid on Tuesday at 8:10 pm EST.