Rays continue Citrus Series dominance, sweep Marlins

MIAMI, FL—The two-game Citrus Series finale between the visiting Tampa Bay Rays and Miami Marlins on Wednesday night generated more pregame buzz than your usual midweek contest at loanDepot park, thanks to actors Will Smith and Martin Lawrence making an appearance just minutes before the 6:40 start time, with the latter throwing out the first pitch while promoting their new film "Bad Boys: Ride or Die". The entertainment and excitement boiled into the first inning, as both teams combined for five runs off of three extra-base hits. Unfortunately for Miami, they only could tack on one more run the rest of the contest while Tampa Bay added two insurance runs. Their bullpen locked down a 5-3 victory and sweep.

Braxton Garrett, making his fifth start of the season, toed the slab for Miami. The Alabama native was coming off back-to-back dazzling starts in Arizona and San Diego where he allowed just one earned run over 14 innings of work.

As hinted at in the introduction, his success did not continue against Tampa Bay, a lineup that was struggling to put up runs coming into their series in South Florida. After getting Yandy Díaz to ground out, the rest of the Rays lineup begun to see the young lefty quite well, ripping two doubles and a single that was misplayed by Marlins outfielder Jesús Sánchez, leading to an early 3-0 deficit for Garrett and Co.

Fortunately for Garrett, the Marlins would pick up their starter in the bottom half of the inning. Josh Bell, Otto Lopez and Jesús Sánchez, who doubled to the left-center field gap and continues to hit the ball hard and look much-improved at the plate, all contributed to close the gap to 3-2.

Garrett had a clean second frame, but ran into more trouble in the third, with the Rays tacking on two more extra-base hits and runs before Marlins manager Skip Schumaker saw enough out of his starter, calling on Declan Cronin, subsequently ending Garrett's night with just 2 ⅔ innings pitched. That was his shortest start of the season.

"He didn't have many first-pitch strikes and that's just unlike him," Schumaker said after the game. "He's usually commanding all four quadrants and just didn't feel like he had the feel for any real pitch." Garrett only collected nine whiffs all night.

On the bright side for the Fish, Cronin, A.J. Puk, Anthony Bender, Andrew Nardi and Calvin Faucher all excelled in relief, allowing eight hits over 6 ⅓ innings of work. The Marlins 'pen came into Wednesday night's game with a sneaky good 3.52 ERA in their last ten contests and continue to show improvement as a unit.

Although the solid pitching gave the Marlins a chance to tie or even take the lead throughout the game, their offense could not build upon their first-inning rally against Zach Eflin. Fresh off the IL, Eflin retired the last 10 batters he faced before exiting.

The Marlins got runners into scoring position in both the fifth and the eighth innings, but could only push across one run courtesy of a Josh Bell single in the aforementioned fifth. Bell continues to stay hot for Miami, and with his RBI single, he extended his hitting streak to eight games, matching the longest such streak he's had as a Marlin. Pete Fairbanks successfully shut things down for Tampa Bay in the ninth, securing a 5-3 win and series sweep while collecting his eighth save of 2024 with a dominant 1-2-3 inning.

Miami is back in action this Friday at loanDepot park against the American League Central-leading Cleveland Guardians. Ryan Weathers takes the ball for the Marlins while Logan Allen gets the nod for Cleveland. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10.