The Miami Marlins are learning one of baseball\u2019s cruelest lessons in real time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis game will humble you,\u201d said Marlins starting pitcher Janson Junk.<\/p>\n
That was how Junk described Wednesday night after Miami\u2019s 9-1 loss to the first-place Atlanta Braves at loanDepot park. That single sentence probably explained the game better than the scoreboard did because for stretches, the Marlins actually competed.<\/p>\n
Miami entered Wednesday night having split its first two games against Atlanta and actually landed the first punch. Xavier Edwards, who\u2019s on torrid pace this season, started the offense again for the Marlins. At the top of the lineup, Edwards got on base and later scored on a Heriberto Hernandez sacrifice fly in the first inning that gave them an early 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n
For about 12 minutes, it felt like the Marlins might be cooking something.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when Atlanta answered back faster in the second inning. Austin Riley played hero as he crushed a big three-run homer for the Braves.<\/p>\n
They never got a chance to build anything. The crowd that had some life in the first inning suddenly got a lot quieter.<\/p>\n
From there, Atlanta settled in while veteran left-hander Chris Sale found his rhythm and completely slowed Miami\u2019s offense after the opening frame.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why Sale\u2019s been good for so long,\u201d Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said afterward. \u201cIt really felt like after that first inning he got into a really good rhythm. The slider really picked up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miami managed only four hits the rest of the night as Sale continued carving through the lineup with sharp command and late movement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the slider was working well today,\u201d Marlins outfielder Esteury Ruiz said. \u201cI had a different plan, but today was his day. He won today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, the game did not completely feel out of reach entering the sixth inning.<\/p>\n
Then baseball did what Junk warned about, it humbled the Marlins.<\/p>\n
Olson started the sixth with an RBI single. Albies followed with another run. Suddenly, Atlanta was treating the inning like batting practice.<\/p>\n
Then Smith crushed a triple to deep center. The Marlins could\u2019ve stopped it there, but a collision in the outfield, a bobbled catch by the infielders and multiple errors while playing defense allowed Smith to score.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth guys are going for it,\u201d McCullough said about the collision. \u201cYou\u2019re trying your best to communicate, whether it\u2019s verbally or some nonverbal stuff, but both guys are going full speed and unfortunately those things do occur.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruiz said afterward the collision looked worse than it felt.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m feeling great,\u201d Ruiz said. \u201cI think it looked even worse on TV than it actually felt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Junk was left staring at another outing where one difficult stretch completely changed the story of his night. His final line showed eight earned runs allowed across five innings, though he felt the game unraveled far quicker than the numbers suggested.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last inning was just unacceptable,\u201d Junk said. \u201cI felt like I made some good pitches and then next thing you know it\u2019s five runs.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the balancing act the Marlins continue trying to figure out this season. They compete early. They flash potential. Edwards continues setting the tone offensively and young players continue battling.<\/p>\n
But against teams like Atlanta, small mistakes do not stay small for very long.<\/p>\n
One hanging sweeper turns into a three-run homer.<\/p>\n
One collision turns into an inside-the-park home run.<\/p>\n
One bad inning suddenly leaves a game looking far uglier than it actually felt.<\/p>\n
And right now, that\u2019s the difference the Marlins are still trying to close.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Miami Marlins are learning one of baseball\u2019s cruelest lessons in real time. \u201cThis game will humble you,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-279454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}