Nathan Eovaldi put in a solid six frames against the Cardinals, allowing three runs on five hits, striking out three. Unfortunately for Miami, the Marlins' bullpen wasn't able to hold off a late rally from St. Louis. Eovaldi's 95 pitches and six innings were both season highs since coming off the DL.
The Marlins' showed some power on the afternoon behind homers from Morrison and Dietrich. Miami was able to score four runs off Cardinals starter Joe Kelly before St. Louis would walk off in the ninth.
Control Issues
After having his number called in the seventh inning, Mike Dunn watched the first batter he faced tie the game with a solo shot.
Dunn pitched into a 1-2 count against Matt Adams. He was, more or less, hitting his spots. Dunn's fastball clocks in at 95 mph on most occasions, making it deadly when located correctly. Adams happens to be one of the game's free-swinging hitters, often swinging wildly at pitches in the dirt.
Those two facts usually add up to a quick out with a power arm like Dunn's.
To state what might come across as obvious to most, a 1-2 count is a pretty good time for a pitcher to venture outside of the strike zone. When the at-bat presents a known power swinger, it's a great time to venture outside of the strike zone. As it turned out, Dunn's fastball found itself right where he didn't need it: slightly elevated, down the middle.
Dunn admitted in postgame comments that he was just trying to offer up some high heat.
Even starter Nathan Eovaldi had his control problems. After the third inning, the Marlins' starter found very few first pitch strikes, getting pushed into deep counts, including three walks on the afternoon.
Pivotal Plays
Adeiny Hechavarria found himself with a scoring opportunity in the fourth inning. Eovaldi grounded to second, prompting the Marlins' short stop to make a break for home plate. Interestingly enough, broadcasters (both radio and television) had Hech scoring on the play. Home plate umpire Bill Welke saw it differently, calling the Marlins potential fifth run out on the tag from Tony Cruz.
Though there's no video online of the play, take my word when I say that Hechavarria was quite literally sitting on the plate before the tag was applied.
The Marlins might have felt slighted by that call, but they didn't help their effort very much when a throwing error cost them the game.
After a Shane Robinson single, following a Jon Jay walk, Giancarlo Stanton's throw to first base didn't go so smoothly. The ball appeared to short-hop Logan Morrison, finding its way beyond the first baseman and allowing Jay to score from third in the bottom of the ninth.
Source: FanGraphs