Throughout June, the Miami Marlins\u2019 offense and bullpen were tasked with carrying an injury-depleted starting rotation.<\/p>\n
They did it well, helping Miami finish the month with baseball\u2019s best record.<\/p>\n
But over the past two games, the rotation has done enough to stay afloat, and the rest of the roster hasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Fresh off carrying a perfect game through seven innings last Sunday against the Oakland Athletics, pitcher Eury P\u00e9rez returned in solid form for Saturday\u2019s 4-1 loss to the Cleveland Guardians, allowing two runs across six innings while striking out six.<\/p>\n
He relied more on his sinker than his four-seam fastball, using it to escape a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the first inning with a strikeout and a ground-ball double play.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a pitch that has been helping me a lot through the first half of the season,\u201d P\u00e9rez said. \u201cWhen you have an inning like that, you have to focus and perform to your full potential.\u201d<\/p>\n
But with the Marlins tallying just two extra-base hits and pitcher William Kempner allowing two runs in an eighth inning that unraveled quickly, another solid start went unrewarded.<\/p>\n
Needing power<\/p>\n
The Marlins didn\u2019t necessarily struggle to get on base, tallying seven hits on the day.<\/p>\n
But with the team\u2019s top two hitters, Otto L\u00f3pez and Xavier Edwards, not being power hitters, and its top run producer, Liam Hicks, batting leadoff, Miami managed to squeeze out just one run and finish well below its season average of 4.5 runs per game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve been doing a good job at inducing a lot of soft contact,\u201d Marlins manager McCullough said of Cleveland\u2019s pitching staff. \u201cWe put some balls on the ground when we had guys on. Couldn\u2019t take advantage of the walks we\u2019ve gotten over the past few nights.\u201d<\/p>\n
Besides Hicks, left fielder Heriberto Hern\u00e1ndez has been the Marlins\u2019 only other consistent source of power lately, homering Friday before doubling Saturday. Tied with Hicks for the team lead with 13 home runs, Hern\u00e1ndez has already surpassed his total of 10 from last season despite taking 57 fewer at-bats.<\/p>\n
Miami could use a few more players taking similar steps. For a team that has been impressively well-rounded despite carrying MLB\u2019s second-smallest projected tax payroll, power remains one of its few glaring holes.<\/p>\n
It could be the difference in games when the pitching is good but not great, especially since the Marlins have already proven that getting on base isn\u2019t the issue.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s next<\/p>\n
The Marlins will try to avoid a sweep when they close the series and first half of the season Sunday at 1:40 p.m. at loanDepot park. Right-hander Tyler Phillips (2-3, 3.28 ERA) will start a bullpen game for Miami opposite Guardians left-hander Joey Cantillo (7-4, 3.66 ERA).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Throughout June, the Miami Marlins\u2019 offense and bullpen were tasked with carrying an injury-depleted starting rotation. They did…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-337354","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\/337354","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=337354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}