Marlins cough up early lead in a 4-3 loss to Cubs

The Marlins suffered a tough loss Tuesday night at Wrigley Field, 4-3, having squandered an early lead and an opportunity at payback after last night’s 14-2 drubbing at the hands of the Cubs.

Jose Ureña took the mound in search of his first win of the season. Coming off consecutive, solid seven-inning outings, and facing a young Cubs pitcher called up from Triple-A, things were looking promising. That starter, Jen-Ho Tseng, was making only his second major league start and had an ERA over 8.00 in the minors this season.

The Marlins jumped out early against Tseng with two outs in the first inning after a hard Starlin Castro single was followed by a two-run smash to left-center by Justin Bour. It was his team-leading seventh homer of the year, and put Miami up 2-0.

Back-to-back doubles by Brian Anderson and Derek Dietrich continued the rally to put the Marlins up 3-0 before a Miguel Rojas ground out finally ended it.

Tseng would get through the second inning unscathed before handing the game over to a rotating crew of Cubs bullpen arms. The unorthodox decision to remove him that early paid dividends when pinch-hitter David Bote’s two-out, two-run double got the Cubs back in the game against Ureña.

In the fourth, Dietrich was thrown out by a country mile trying to score from second base on a Lewis Brinson single. With Dietrich trying rather aggressively to jar the ball from the Cubs catcher, Victor Caratini, words were exchanged, and then the benches cleared.

In the sixth inning, the Cubs started hitting Ureña harder, and ended up chasing him from the game, while also tying the game with a force out. Ureña will have to wait until another day to get his first victory of the season.

In the bottom of the eighth, Kyle Barraclough would enter the game and allow a leadoff walk to Kris Bryant. Bryant would advance to second on a wild pitch, then to third on a ground out. A fielder’s choice from Caratini would break the tie for good.

Brandon Morrow would come in the ninth and slam the door to get his eighth save of the year and seal the game and a series victory for the Cubs.

King Fish: The Cubs bullpen, who tossed seven scoreless innings to stifle the Marlins.

Flounder: José Ureña, who couldn’t hold a 3-0 lead.

Turning Point: Joe Maddon deciding to pull his starter for a pinch-hitter in the second inning which swung the game’s momentum.

fangraphs.com

Miami looks to avoid a sweep Wednesday at 2:20pm ET with a battle of lefties as Wei-Yin Chen takes on Jose Quintana.

Please leave any Icthy picks in the comments below (explainer).

Pitching Matchup

Matchup Summary

José Ureña, the Marlins’ opening day starter, has had a rough start to the season. Though in many ways an antiquated statistic, Ureña’s win-loss record is 0-5 and only has a 4.28 ERA so far. However, he seems to be on track lately having thrown back to back 7 inning, 1 earned run performances.

He will face the 23-year old Jen-Ho Tseng, who is making his 2018 season debut and his second big league start.

The Marlins need to win the next two games to keep their streak of four straight series wins alive. They will need a much better outcome than the 14-2 drubbing last night, but every day brings a new opportunity, and the Fish will look to seize that tonight against the Cubs.

Thread Question: Who will be the star for the Marlins offense tonight?