Rogers’ strong start overshadowed by Herz’s dominance

On Saturday, Miami Marlins starting pitcher Trevor Rogers turned in one of his better outings of the season, but Washington Nationals rookie pitcher DJ Herz completely dominated, leading the Nationals to a 4-0 win.

For the first time since June 10, 2021, Rogers gave the Marlins seven innings of work. Less use of the sinker paved way for the slider/four-seam to succeed and although he generated only four whiffs, there were eight groundball outs. Rogers averaged 13 pitches per inning, allowing him to go as deep into his outing as he did.

Rogers, who has struggled with command/control, didn't surrender a single walk. It's the first time he doesn't walk anyone in a start since April 17 of this season. Rogers also attacked the strike zone, throwing 62 strikes which led to three strikeouts and a lot of contact. He gave up six hard-hit balls. Rogers also posted one of the highest first-pitch strike percentages this season at 74%.

Despite his strong efforts, he took the loss. In the bottom of the first inning, Joey Meneses drove in a run off of a sac fly. In the bottom of the third inning, Lane Thomas went deep for the second time this season, but this time a solo homer to give the Nationals a 2-0 lead. The ball left the bat at 100.6 mph and went 378 feet to center field.

Nationals rookie lefty DJ Herz had a career start going six innings of shutout baseball, giving up one hit, no walks and striking out 13. Herz generated 21 whiffs, 13 of them coming on the four-seam fastball. His changeup did some work as well, generating six whiffs and ended up being his second most-used pitch of the afternoon.

The Marlins offense didn't get anything going. Their one hard-hit ball against Herz came on a Jake Burger base hit in the top of the fifth inning. Herz also averaged 14 pitches per inning and had two innings where he struck out the side. He earned his first major league win.

Tim Anderson led off for the Marlins. It's the first time he did it as a Marlin and rightfully so. Entering Saturday's game, Anderson had a four-game hit streak and in 2,055 career plate appearances in the lead-off spot, Anderson slashed .289/.320/.424/.744 with 52 home runs and 171 RBIs. Anderson struggled along with the Marlins offense going 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. It marks the first time this season that he has struck out four times in a game.

In the top of the eighth inning, the Marlins had the bases loaded with two outs. After working a full count, Nationals reliever Hunter Harvey went with a splitter low and away and the Marlins shortstop swung right through it.

The nail in the coffin was Joey Meneses taking Andrew Nardi deep for a two-run homer in the eighth inning to give the Nationals a 4-0 lead.

With the loss, Miami drops to 23-47 while Washington improves to 34-36. This marks the eighth time this season the Marlins have been shut out.