SFG 15, MIA 6; Not F****** Trying

The Marlins promoted Friday night’s game against the Giants by unveiling a new “NFT art display.” How appropriate that it took only a couple innings of awful baseball to turn us all into bored apes.

This was the Marlins’ 29th loss of the season and their most lopsided one. It came the day after assistant general manager Dan Greenlee described the Fish as “very competitive.” In that same interview, Greenlee expressed confidence in Elieser Hernandez turning around his 2022 campaign once his sky-high home run rate “normalizes.” That comment also aged poorly.

Working in relief behind opener Richard Bleier, Hernandez allowed four homers to the Giants (one apiece to Thairo Estrada, Joc Pederson, Jason Vosler and Mike Yastrzemski). That brings the right-hander’s season total to 18, which leads the majors.

No pitcher in MLB history who has pitched as many innings as Elieser Hernandez has allowed home runs as frequently (h/t Daniel De Vivo).

You have to feel for Bleier, who suffered his first loss of 2022 because the Marlins fell behind by one run with him on the mound and never erased the deficit.

For a full month now, I have been calling on the Marlins to remove Hernandez from their starting rotation. I have receipts. Craig Mish of SportsGrid reports that they’re finally going to do it. Max Meyer is still working his way back from the injured list (ulnar nerve irritation), so it’ll be Braxton Garrett.

The Marlins’ inexplicable hesitation has doomed them. They have lost seven straight games that Hernandez has pitched in, including four one-run losses.

Willians Astudillo pitched the top of the ninth inning for Miami, which would be something to celebrate more emphatically if the rest of the game wasn’t so demoralizing. He held the Giants scoreless with pitch speeds ranging from 37.7 to 73.7 miles per hour.

Don Mattingly’s Postgame Press Conference

Baseball Savant

We’ll get a more conventional starting pitching matchup in the third game of the series with right-handers Logan Webb and Pablo López taking the mound. Webb matched his career high on Monday by striking out 10 Phillies batters. First pitch at 4:10 p.m.