Meyer's struggles persist in resounding loss

MIAMI, FL—The Elly De La Cruz show continued on Tuesday night in South Florida. The second-year phenom collected his fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth hits of the series between his Cincinnati Reds and the Miami Marlins, and there are two games still remaining in the four-game set. De La Cruz spearheaded his offense’s outburst, as the rest of the Reds lineup tallied 13 hits with eight of them coming off Miami’s starter, Max Meyer. Miami’s bats were only able to muster up four hits courtesy of the impressive outing from the arm opposite of Meyer in Nick Lodolo in what ended up being a decisive 8-2 Reds win.

In his last start when he battled a notoriously powerful Braves lineup, Meyer got hurt when he left too many pitches over the heart of the plate and stuck too close to his fastball and slider instead of mixing in his changeup to keep hitters guessing and stay unpredictable. Those exact same problems persisted in his first game back at loanDepot park since mid-April. Meyer’s inability to effectively locate his pitches—notably his fastball—led to a quick departure on Tuesday. Reds hitters recorded 10 hard-hit balls and the 25-year-old allowed a career-high three walks before being relieved by Emmanuel Ramírez following the fourth inning.

“His command was off. You could see it. From early on, a lot of three-ball counts, three walks, a hit by pitch. Just kind of uncharacteristic of him,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said of his starter postgame.

"Slider didn't really have its shape," Schumaker continued. "No swing-and-miss on his changeup. Just a rough start for Max. You know, he's a young pitcher. He's going to have these coming off a major surgery first year back. He's going to have a couple of these. And unfortunately, he had one tonight."

In addition to substandard command, Meyer leaned heavily on his four-seam and slider, throwing those pitches a combined 77% while throwing his changeup 12 times (16%) plus a handful of sinkers. Meyer’s limited changeup usage also bit him last week in Truist Park when he threw the pitch 12% of the time.

Simply put, two-pitch starting pitchers are unheard of at the big league level. If Meyer wants to secure a spot in the rotation moving forward—a job that’s only going to be harder to lock down when Miami gets their best arms back from the injured list—it is imperative that either his changeup or sinker develops into a pitch that can occasionally finish off hitters or at least put him in more favorable counts.

“I just didn't have it tonight. I didn't have my good stuff tonight. I know I can be a lot better. I'm gonna be a lot better,” said Meyer postgame.

After Ramírez’s lone inning in relief, Schumaker turned to Darren McCaughan to eat the final four innings. McCaughan, who pitched for Miami for the first time since early May in the infamous 20-run A’s game, was solid albeit a little lucky, only giving up one run. 

Unluckily for Meyer, in addition to not having his best stuff, he had the seemingly impossible task of retiring the newest Fish killer in De La Cruz and the rest of the powerful Reds lineup.

De La Cruz, who had four hits and a homer in game one of the set on Monday night, somehow had an equally impressive encore with four more hits (two of them doubles) and a stolen base.

Schumaker raved about Cincinnati’s star, noting “Elly’s a special player. He's reminded me a lot of (Fernando) Tatís Jr. in his first couple years. The size, the strength, the speed, power combination...he's a freak..”

In addition to EDLC, the Reds were powered by Tyler Stephenson and Ty France who both sent home fans with souvenirs and tightened the Reds' grip on the lead.

On the contrary, Miami’s offense produced another dud after being shut down by Lodolo and the southpaw's four-seam/curveball/changeup mix. Two of the four hits for the Marlins came, unsurprisingly, off the bat of Xavier Edwards, who extended his on-base streak to 23 games. It is tied for the current longest streak in baseball with the Phillies’ Alec Bohm.

First pitch for game three of the four-game set between these two teams is slated to start Wednesday night at 6:40 ET. Valente Bellozo takes the ball for Miami coming off an impressive start in Cobb County. Andrew Abbott, who Marlins hitters found success off of less than a month ago at Great American Ball Park, looks to claim the series win for his Reds.