Marlins waste an Adam Conley gem; lose 5-3 to Padres

The Marlins (8-8) lost to the Padres (8-10) by a score of 5-3, in game one of a three game series in San Diego. This was a game devoid of much offense for the first six innings.

Adam Conley had a fairly good outing in his third start of the season. He went six innings, allowing six hits, one earned run, two walks, while striking out five (93 pitches, 59 strikes). His most impressive work came in the second and fourth inning when he stranded two leadoff hits.

Hunter Renfroe and Travis Jankowski led off the second inning with back-to-back singles. After Padres’ starting pitcher Trevor Cahill (W, 1-2) laid down a successful sacrifice bunt, Conley got Manuel Margot and Erick Aybar to ground out to end the threat. Renfroe should have scored on the Margot ground out, but he was unsure if the ball was going to be caught in the air, so he held up at third. Those darn rookies!

Ryan Schimpf and Renfroe put together two hits to begin the bottom of the fourth. Once again, Conley dug deep and got himself out of the jam. He struck out both Jankowski and Cahill before forcing a Margot ground out to end the threat. Really good job of working into and out of trouble by the Marlins southpaw.

The only run that Conley allowed was in the first inning and boy did it come together quickly. Margot ripped a leadoff triple into the right field corner and Aybar brought him home on a sac-fly. It took four pitches for the Padres to take the lead.

David Phelps (L, 2-2) replaced Conley in the seventh inning and continued to not look good. He allowed three straight singles to start the frame (although the third was not his fault; Aybar laid down a bunt and J.T. Realmuto slipped while reaching to pick it up). Phelps got Wil Myers to ground into a double play, while allowing the go-ahead run to score. If the score would have held at 2-1, Don Mattingly would have been thrilled. Unfortunately for the Marlins skipper, two batters latter Austin Hedges deposited a three-run home run into the left field seats. Mattingly had walked Yangervis Solarte intentionally to get to Hedges; that didn’t exactly work out. Phelps remained in the game for the bottom of the eight and retired the Padres in order. The Marlins were banking on the right-hander to be an integral member of their bullpen and so far he has been nothing short of a disaster. Phelps has allowed at least one run in four of his eight appearances, with a team high 8.10 ERA.

The Marlins offense was over-matched all game long against Cahill; the 6’4” right-hander was locked in from the start. His one blemish was thanks to Marcell Ozuna, who crushed his sixth home run of the season in the top of the second. Outside of that hit, the Marlins had only three other baserunners reach against Cahill. He had a stretch of retiring 15 straight Marlins from the second inning to the seventh; Justin Bour broke that streak with an infield single. Not an ideal evening from the offense.

The Marlins did show some life in the ninth inning. Martin Prado led off the inning with a walk, before Giancarlo Stanton hit his fifth homer of the season. It was an opposite field shot that didn’t look like it had enough loft on it to leave the park. Alas, Stanton was rounding the bases.

After Ichiro Suzuki smashed a double down the right field line, (it potentially could have been a triple if the Padres ball girl didn’t interfere with the ball) the Marlins brought the tying run to the plate in the form of Ozuna. Former Fish Brad Hand ended the threat by striking out the red-hot Ozuna and getting Realmuto to ground out to short. The Marlins finished with only five hits on the evening.

Note: Dee Gordon was seen limping after stepping awkwardly on the first base bag in the eighth inning. He remained in the game, so hopefully he is okay.

Here is the Fangraphs win expectancy graph for those who care:

Fangraphs

The Marlins and Padres will be back in action tomorrow at 8:40 PM (EST). It will be Dan Straily on the bump for the Marlins and Jered Weaver for the Padres.