Marlins bats go dormant a second straight day, drop finale

Not a lot has gone right for Trevor Rogers in 2024. Rogers has shown that he's healthy by making every scheduled start through the first 2-plus months of the season, but he has been mostly ineffective, entering Sunday's outing against the Rangers with a 1-6 record and an ERA approaching 6.

Things would not start any better for the former Marlins All-Star, as Texas opened the afternoon with four consecutive singles. Though he only threw 17 pitches in the top of the first, the Rangers still plated 3 runs on their way to a 6-0 victory over the Marlins.

In the loss, Rogers recorded a mini-milestone, completing the 6th inning for the first time since 4/14/23, aided largely by a stretch where he retired 11 of the next 13 hitters faced. His season ERA moderately increased from 5.65 to 5.68 in the loss. 

"After that first inning, he really settled in...I thought he gave us a chance to win, but it's hard to win when you don't score runs," noted Skip Schumaker.

"You know that Mike Tyson quote, 'Everyone has a plan until they're punched in the face?' So you have to go to Plan B, and Plan C if Plan B's not working," said Rogers. 

Cruising in the top of the sixth, Rogers would leave a fastball right over the heart of the plate for Adolis García in what would turn out to be his 13th home run of the season. Notable was the drop-off in Rogers' fastball velocity with the pitch sitting 87-89 mph after topping out at 93.6 in the first.

"He's been going at it very hard with his workload since the Oakland series, so there may be some backoff of whatever it is in trying to get his arm strength back to where he wants it...It's very hard to gain velocity when you're pitching every fifth or sixth day", noted Schumaker, echoing the sentiment shared by Rogers of "one of those days where (velocity) just wasn't there."

In a homecoming of sorts, opposing starter Andrew Heaney—the Marlins first-round pick in 2012—put forth a 6-inning effort much the antonym to the day had by Rogers. Limiting Miami to just four hits along the way, Heaney dropped his season ERA below 4 for the first time since his first start of the season on April 2. The left-hander struck out 7 and walked none in his first appearance at loanDepot park since 9/21/14, winning his second consecutive start in the process.

Heaney would be followed by three scoreless frames from the Texas bullpen, including a goose egg bottom of the eighth from David Robertson, whom Miami acquired from the Mets prior to the 2023 trade deadline. On the day, the Marlins struck out 11 times while failing to draw a single walk. 

Of Note

- Falling to 21-39, the Marlins have now been shut out in consecutive games for the second time here in 2024.

- With the loss, the Marlins are now 2-19 in games when facing a left-handed starting pitcher, the worst mark in baseball. 

- Sunday marked the fourth three-walk game of Marcus Semien's career. The Rangers 2B last did so on 9/21/19. Ironically enough, Semien did so against the Texas Rangers. 

- Miami recorded their seventh game this season without an extra-base hit. 

Looking Ahead

Miami will resume play Tuesday when they welcome the Tampa Bay Rays to commence a brief, two-game Citrus Series. Jesús Luzardo (2-4, 4.18 ERA) will start the series opener. In 3 career starts against the Rays, Luzardo is 0-2 with a 2.81 ERA. Ryan Pepiot (3-2, 3.88 ERA) will look to continue his early career dominance against Miami (2-0, 1.50 ERA) as he makes his fourth career start against them.

First pitch is slated for 6:40 EST from loanDepot park.