PIT 5, MIA 1; Offense doesn’t come through, costing Marlins winnable game

Miami, FL—The Miami Marlins are back in town, hosting a 4-game set against the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates. In Monday’s series opener, Trevor Rogers was on the mound for the Marlins and Mitch Keller was the man for the Pirates. The Marlins offense didn’t come through when needed in their game one loss.

The Pirates struck first. Kevin Newman and Ke’Bryan Hayes both singled against Trevor Rogers. Hayes’ hit was a lucky one, fielded cleanly by Jesús Aguilar, but Trevor Rogers was late covering the first-base bag and did not turn around in time to receive Aguilar’s throw.

Rogers got close to escaping the jam with no runs allowed. However, with two outs and an 0-2 count, Diego Castillo hit an RBI single to give the Pirates the 2-0 lead. Trevor used up 27 pitches in that opening inning.

In the top of the second inning, the Pirates kept the offensive chains moving. Jake Marisnick walked and later stole a base (his 2nd stolen base of the season). Kevin Newman, who had singled in his last at-bat, doubled and scored Marisnick from second extending the lead to 3-0.

Rogers’ night would come to an end after 5 ¹⁄₃ innings of work. He settled in well after the second and didn’t allow much hard contact. His 7 strikeouts were close to a season high (he had 8 on May 14 vs. the Brewers). Trevor’s pitch mix included more sliders than usual—he used it 25% of the time on Monday, compared to his season average of 18%. Overall, there is still room for his command to improve.

The Marlins offense was getting dominated by Mitch Keller until the bottom of the 6th inning. Garrett Cooper hit a double to set the stage for Avisaíl García. With a 1-0 count and two outs in the inning, García hit an RBI single to put a run on the board for the Fish.

This was possibly one of the best starts of Keller’s major league career. Even without getting much swing-and-miss, he made it look easy out there. Keller went slider heavy and spotted the pitch low and away to right-handed batters. Keller also used his sinker to consistently get ahead in the count. The Pirates right-hander truly impressed.

Keller’s velocity was far lower than normal in this start. Addressing the media postgame, he wondered if his bullpen session early last week may have been a reason for that. He had no injury-related concerns.

The Pirates offense added on in the 9th inning. Jimmy Yacabonis was unable to hold the deficit at 3-1, allowing a leadoff double to Josh VanMeter and a 2-run bomb to Jake Marisnick that sealed the deal. With a projected distance of 419 feet, it was Marisnick’s longest homer since 2019, according to Baseball Savant.

Yerry De Los Santos finished this game, recording all 4 of his outs via strikeouts.

The Pirates improved to 37-50 while the Marlins went to 41-44 on the season.

Don Mattingly’s Postgame Press Conference

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The Marlins will face highly ranked Pirates pitching prospect Roansy Contreras on Tuesday. He is having a solid rookie year (3-2, 3.78 ERA, 12 G, 50.0 IP, 1.38 WHIP) and went a season-high 6 innings in his last start. Contreras uses a 4-seam fastball, slider, curveball, and changeup. Another talented Pittsburgh rookie, shortstop Oneil Cruz, will probably be in the lineup.

The Marlins’ pitcher will be Dan Castano who looks to bounce back from a rough last start against the New York Mets.