Max Meyer shatters career-high with 14 strikeouts in win over Reds

MIAMI, FL—Max Meyer mania may have peaked in Monday night's 6-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds as the right-hander recorded one of the highest strikeout totals in franchise history. Making his Major League debut behind the plate, Agustín Ramírez called a great game and immediately showed his offensive potential.

Meyer became the first MLB pitcher this season and just the eighth in Marlins history to strike out 14 batters in a game. The Minnesota native joined the late José Fernández (July 28, 2016) as the only Marlins starters to ever reach 10 strikeouts within the first four innings. It was also Meyer's fourth straight quality start—nobody else on Miami's staff has produced even one.

"Gross," said manager Clayton McCullough to begin his postgame press conference. "That's a good start against a good offensive club...You could tell he was in control right from beginning. I think he had everything working. The fastball played well, had the hard breaking ball, he could strike with the sweeper, threw some really good changeups. It was his ability to strike with so many pitches and then able to get below the zone as well to get swing-and-miss. It was really fun to sit back and watch him just cruise along."

Per usual, Meyer relied on his slider, using it 43% of the time to generate 16 whiffs and 11 strikeouts. The other three came on changeups. Following his start, he is now tied with Zack Wheeler for the second-most strikeouts (41) in the National League, only trailing MacKenzie Gore of the Washington Nationals (45).

"You have five starts a year that everything feels like it's clicking and every pitch is doing exactly what you want it to do," said Meyer. "You get strike one and then you can just play around after, so yeah, I hope to watch the video and keep trying to do that every single start."

Fish On First's number three prospect Agustín Ramírez was hitting sixth and behind the plate after being called up from Triple-A Jacksonville the night before. He finished Monday's game going 2-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base while calling the pitches for Meyer.

"Gus was terrific," said McCullough. "He really received the low ball well, had some really good blocks with two strikes. They seem to be in sync there and they had a great conversation between innings with (pitching coach) Daniel (Moskos) setting up the next inning. Gus kept a good rhythm and tempo, followed Max along well."

The lone left-handed batter in the Marlins lineup, Jesús Sánchez, drove in the first run of the game off Reds starter Nick Lodolo. His RBI single to center field in the bottom of the first inning scored Otto Lopez. Designated hitter Ronny Simon, who was also making his Major League debut, drove Ramírez in on an RBI single up the middle, giving the Fish a 2-0 lead.

Eric Wagaman extended his hit streak to a career-high nine games with his third home run of the season to make it 3-0. The ball left his bat at 104.9 mph and went 407 feet to dead center. The free agent signing has rebounded from an early slump to be a reliable bat for his new club.

"This is a really good version of Wagaman," said McCullough. "I think we all believe in Wag's chance to be a solid offensive player. He's hitting righties and lefties, putting together good at-bats. Right now he's on time, balanced, using the whole field, so hoping for more to come from Eric."

Kyle Stowers pinch-hit for Dane Myers in the bottom of the seventh inning and took Reds reliever Alexis Díaz deep for a three-run shot to left field, breaking the game open with a 6-0 lead. It marked Stowers' first career pinch-hit home run and the second of the season for the Marlins, with Matt Mervis doing it on April 13 against the Washington Nationals.

The Marlins have now won back-to-back games and are 10-12 on the season and will send Edward Cabrera to the mound for game two of this three-game set. First pitch on Tuesday is at 6:40 pm.