The floodgates opened early on Friday night at loanDepot Park.<\/p>\n
After giving up three runs in the top of the first inning of the Miami Marlins\u2019 6-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, starting pitcher Ryan Gusto was pulled after just two innings, marking the second straight game in which he allowed more runs than innings pitched.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey got some good swings off, and I think I can be better in some of these counts to prevent the damage,\u201d Gusto said after the game. \u201cI\u2019m just going to continue to mix pitches as well as I can and execute.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tyler Phillips, who is also competing for a spot in the rotation, wasn\u2019t much better in relief of Gusto, allowing seven runs on three hits over 4 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n
Their struggles underscored the most glaring weakness on Miami\u2019s roster: the open spots in its rotation.<\/p>\n
The unit has been thinned by injuries to Eury P\u00e9rez, Janson Junk and Robby Snelling after entering the season with respectable depth, and manager Clayton McCullough has yet to find a pitcher who has consistently risen to the occasion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s certainly a different scenario now without as many true starting pitchers,\u201d McCullough said.<\/p>\n
After being called up from Triple A Jacksonville on Tuesday, Gusto gave up three runs and five hits while pitching just two innings during Miami\u2019s 7-3 win over the Washington Nationals.<\/p>\n
Before heading back to Miami, the 27-year-old pitcher had given the Marlins reason for optimism, going 4-2 with a 3.83 ERA in Jacksonville and positioning himself as a potential solution for their thinning rotation.<\/p>\n
While allowing six runs over his past four innings certainly isn\u2019t a step forward, McCullough expressed faith in the inexperienced pitcher, pointing to his success in Jacksonville as a reason to remain patient.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven with those two innings here, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to take away from what he\u2019s already built up in Triple A,\u201d McCullough said. \u201cWhen he gets to the Arizona series, he should be able to give us a healthy amount of pitches.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, the Marlins were dealt another blow to their rotation when it was announced that top prospect Thomas White is expected to miss the remainder of the season after suffering a left shoulder capsular sprain last month.<\/p>\n
One piece of encouraging news came before first pitch, when McCullough provided an update on several injured pitchers and highlighted the progress of 23-year-old Eury P\u00e9rez.<\/p>\n
\u201cEury\u2019s progressing well, he\u2019s going to start throwing in the next couple of days,\u201d McCullough said.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s next?<\/p>\n
The Marlins continue their three-game series against the Rays on Saturday at loanDepot park. First pitch is scheduled for 4:10 p.m.<\/p>\n
During his postgame news conference, McCullough announced that right-handed pitcher Lake Bachar will get the start on Saturday. Primarily a relief pitcher, Bachar will make his second start of the season and just the third of his career. In 19 appearances this season, he has posted a 3.45 ERA with 35 strikeouts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The floodgates opened early on Friday night at loanDepot Park. After giving up three runs in the top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-298487","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\/298487","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=298487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}