Marlins fall apart late in 8-1 loss to Mets

Through six innings, I felt really good about this game.

The team has finally been hitting a good stride in August, as they have won 10 of 17 and were one game under .500. Rafael Montero (1-7, 6.53 ERA) was the starting pitcher for the Mets in the swing of a five game losing streak, and Curtis Granderson is now a Los Angeles Dodger.

Vance Worley (2-3, 4.97) has been one of the most consistent pitchers for the Marlins since the break and was facing a Mets offense that looks borderline unrecognizable from their very hopeful start.

Saturday night started off with the Fish trying to track down Montero’s insistence to hug the bottom of the strike zone. Dee Gordon bobbed an inside pitch back to Montero, and the newly neon-sleeved Stanton was walked for his 24th consecutive game.

Montero pitched 25 times in the first inning alone, and seemed downright scared of the Marlins recent offensive prowess. Despite this, Miami was unable to generate much offense at all excluding the sixth inning where Marcell Ozuna singled to left to drive in Dee Gordon.

The Marlins grounded into five double plays courtesy of Montero’s control of the bottom of the zone. These double plays ended any chance to spark the offense in the second, third, fourth and fifth innings. This was the fifth time in team history that the Marlins have batted into five double plays in one game.

While trying to combat their problems with Montero, the Marlins gave up seven runs in the sixth inning. Drew Steckenrider was struggling with his control all night as Asdrubal Cabrera drove in run, Brandon Nimmo and Yoenis Cespedes scored on a Miguel Rojas error, while Wilmer Flores and Kevin Plawecki (called up from AAA Las Vegas today) both homered to bring the score to 7-1.

Dominic Smith would take Javy Guerra deep in the 8th to close out the scoring for the night. More than anything, I loathe having to watch the Home Run Apple arise from the depths to haunt my dreams.

The Marlins were unable to generate anything resembling offense against Hansel Robles in the 7th and 8th or Chase Bradford in the 9th. Behold the unrivaled power of the Fangraphs game chart to see where it all went wrong for the Fish.

FranGraphs.com

Miami will close out its three-game series against the Mets at Citi Field Sunday with Adam Conley (5-5, 5.32) on the bump. He will face Jacob DeGrom (13-6, 3.35) with first pitch scheduled for 1:10 p.m. This is the last time the Marlins will face the Mets until a three-game series starting September 18 in Miami.