Luzardo good, Waldron better as Marlins drop game two in San Diego

Matt Waldron, an anomaly in today's game who lives off a low-90s fastball and a dazzling knuckleball, took the mound for Mike Shildt's San Diego Padres on Tuesday night in game two of a three-game series against the Miami Marlins. Waldron had been a below-average starter thus far in 2024, but in this start, he threw his aforementioned knuckleball better than ever and dominated for seven innings en route to a 4-0 Padres win, snapping Miami's streak of four series wins in a row.

"The knuckleball was real," Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said postgame. "We couldn't figure it out." That was evident from the first inning. Waldron generated awkward swings from both Bryan De La Cruz and Jesús Sanchez for strikeouts, a theme that would continue the rest of the night. The 27-year old would finish with eight K's, all of them coming on the knuckleball.

The key for Waldron was staying out of high-pressure situations, as there was only a runner in scoring position three times all night, and all three times it was Josh Bell with two outs. Bell and Jake Burger were the only Marlins bats who could figure anything out against Waldron, as the 2023 trade deadline acquisition duo had five of the six hits Miami recorded all night. The righty finished his outing with no earned runs for the second time this season.

Marlins ace Jesús Luzardo, coming off the best start of his career just six days prior against the Milwaukee Brewers, was tasked with navigating the powerful Padres lineup. While Luzardo started his outing by getting former teammate Luis Arráez to strike out, the rest of Arráez's new teammates picked him up, and in a hurry. Fernando Tatís Jr.dropped a single into right field just a pitch later and Jurickson Profar broke the tie with a two-run homer to left-center on a ball Marlins center fielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. came inches away from bringing back. Those were the first earned runs Luzardo has allowed in the first inning all season. 

While things could've gotten out of control, Luzardo would settle in after the first inning. The lefty was his usual self from innings two to four, albeit gathering no strikeouts, instead relying on his defense behind him to pick him up. Trouble arose again in the fifth, though, as Arráez got his buddy back in round three, singling over the shortstop's head just like he'd done countless time during his Marlins tenure. San Diego followed with more singles from Tatís and Profar, the latter bringing in Arráez to make it a 3-0 ballgame.

Luzardo limited the damage as he got Manny Machado to strike out and Jake Cronenworth to fly out, and after a clean sixth inning, Skip Schumaker had seen enough, turning the game over to Andrew Nardi. Wednesday's performance was yet another encouraging outing from Luzardo, and perhaps an audition in front of a possible trade suitor (the Padres reportedly expressed interest in acquiring Luzardo last offseason).

Nardi would go on to pitch a 1-2-3 seventh inning before Emmanuel Ramirez came in for his fifth appearance of the season in the eighth, where San Diego tacked on an insurance run with some small ball and a Donovan Solano single.

Miami needed to get four runs across in the top of the ninth if they wanted to keep things going, but Jeremiah Estrada instead struck out the side, locking up the shut out and clinching a series win for the Friars.

San Diego looks for the series sweep Wednesday at 4:10 EST. Braxton Garrett, who similar to Luzardo, is coming off the best performance of his career in his last start, takes the ball for Miami. Yu Darvish, who has a career regular season ERA of 5.59 and a playoff loss against the Marlins, looks to break out the brooms for the Padres.