Source: FanGraphs
Attendance: 21,819
Hero of the Game: Donnie Murphy (.109 WPA)
Goat of the Game: Ricky Nolasco (-.294 WPA)
Play of the Game: Juan Francisco singled to right. Jason Heyward and Freddie Freeman scored. The Braves went up two runs and never looked back (.184 WPA)
The Marlins have now lost the first two games on their current 11 game road trip. Tuesday night was not much different than Monday night. Very little hitting from the Fish. And Ricky Nolasco once again lost confidence in his pitches. And on a day the Marlins made two trades before the non-waiver deadline, they continued to show the main reason this season has not gone their way: they don't hit enough. Regardless of who's in the line up.
No Offense
The Marlins once again started a line up that included three guys batting under .200 (Donnie Murphy, John Buck, and Bryan Petersen). In fact, Ricky Nolasco has a better batting average than these three! Nevertheless, the only offense came from Murphy when he connected on a solo blast in the first inning. The Marlins only managed five hits after the first inning. And in a game with a long rain delay, the Marlins could not capitalize off of four Braves relievers. Jose Reyes did manage to extend his hitting streak to 18 games however.
Average Pitching
Nolasco gives up four runs in five innings. The Marlins have had to use a lot of bullpen in their first two games of this series. Ricky has now lost his last four decisions for the first time in his career (hard to believe). And even though his record is not terrible (eight up and ten down), his ERA continues to climb (up to 4.90 now). Hopefully Wade LeBlanc can pitch past the fifth inning Wednesday night when he takes on Ben Sheets.