MIA 2, NYM 4; What went wrong in Marlins’ loss

For the first time in 316 days, the Miami Marlins are on a losing streak.

The Fish left 20 runners on base and went 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position in a 4-2 loss to the New York Mets.

The Marlins made starting pitcher Jacob deGrom sweat early. After a relatively quiet first inning, deGrom walked the first two batters of the second inning on eight consecutive balls. After examining his pitching hand after the second walk, Mets trainers went to check on deGrom’s middle finger. Just two innings into the game, the Mets bullpen was already warming up. A couple of batters later, second baseman Eddy Alvarez loaded the bases on a hard-hit infield single for his first MLB hit. However, deGrom was able to retire the next two batters to escape the jam. DeGrom needed 32 pitches to get through the second inning, but the Marlins could not take advantage of his shaky command.

“We didn’t really get that big hit,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “Blister or not, it’s still 98-99 with his slider. So, obviously you think you don’t want to let this guy off the hook.”

Marlins starting pitcher Pablo López didn’t look as good as he did in his last outing, but still kept Miami within striking distance. His only trouble came in the third inning in which he loaded the bases after allowing a single and two walks. Jeff McNeil hit a hard line drive at Eddy Alvarez, who made a diving stop to keep the ball in the infield and force the out at second base. One run still scored, but Alvarez’s play saved what could’ve been two runs.

After striking out Pete Alonso, López induced an easy fly ball to left field that should’ve ended the inning, but Corey Dickerson bobbled it and allowed another run to score, making the score 2-0, and McNeil to move to third base. On the next play, López flashed his glove by picking up a short chopper a few feet in front of home plate and flipping the ball directly from his mitt into catcher Ryan Lavarnway’s glove to get McNeil out at the plate. In total, the Mets scored two runs on just one hit in the inning.

The Marlins were only able to muster runs in the 5th inning off of a 2-run Jesús Aguilar home run to bring the Marlins within a run.

The Fish didn’t get another big chance on offense until the 8th inning, down 4-2. Facing Edwin Díaz with two outs, Lavarnway and Alvarez reached base, setting up Monte Harrison with the biggest at-bat of his very young career. But Harrison whiffed on three straight fastballs near the middle of the zone for the final out of the inning.

During his first week as a big leaguer, Harrison struck out in nine of his 18 plate appearances

The Marlins have an off day on Monday before they travel to Buffalo, New York to play the Toronto Blue Jays. The Blue Jays have made Buffalo their temporary home for the 2020 season after the city of Toronto denied them the ability to host baseball games at the Rogers Centre. Elieser Hernandez will make the start for Miami against Toronto’s top offseason acquisition, All-Star left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu.