Miami Marlins come out flat in series-opening loss to Pittsburgh Pirates

About three hours before first pitch Monday, Miami Marlins manager Don Mattingly warned that his team couldn’t overlook the Pittsburgh Pirates club they were about to face for the next four days.

They learned that the hard way in the series opener.

The Marlins fell behind early and couldn’t recover in a 5-1 loss to the Pirates at loanDepot park. Miami is now 41-44 on the season and 10-18 in series openers, while Pittsburgh improves to 37-50.

So, what went wrong?

In essence, the Marlins did the exact opposite of what they intended to do coming off a four-game road series split with the New York Mets and a run that included eight wins over their previous 11 games entering the Pirates series to keep themselves in the thick of the National League playoff race.

The goal for this week, in Mattingly’s words, was to “just kind of continue momentum from what’s been going on.”

“Hopefully come home and play well in this series,” Mattingly added. “That’s the key with where we are at this point. Just continue momentum. Continue to play well series to series and keep moving.”

On Monday, that plan backfired from the start.

The Pirates scored three runs against Trevor Rogers in the first two innings.

Diego Castillo opened scoring in the first when he lofted a low and inside slider on an 0-2 count in shallow center field for a two-out bloop single that scored Kevin Newman and Ke’Bryan Hayes, both of whom also reached on singles to lead off the inning. A Jesus Aguilar throwing error on Hayes’ infield hit allowed Newman to get to third. Hayes also stole second before Castillo’s hit.

“I think it could have been down a little more,” Rogers said of the slider Castillo hit. “It was just a little too flat for my liking, but I got it in on him. I’ll take that, but a little more depth would have definitely helped.”

A Newman double in the second scored Jake Marisnick, who drew a one-out walk and stole second.

Rogers settled in from there to throw 5 1/3 innings with seven strikeouts while scattering six hits and walking three batters on 103 pitches. It was just the third time in 17 starts this year that Rogers has pitched beyond the fifth inning. It was also just the second time this season Rogers threw 100 pitches in a game.

“The majority of this year, that’s kind of been my kryptonite — getting bounced in fourth and fifth inning,” Rogers said. “Really getting to that sixth was huge for me.”

Marisnick added a two-run home run in the ninth against Jimmy Yacabonis to pad the Pirates’ lead.

Miami’s lone run came in the sixth when Avisail Garcia’s two-out single scored Garrett Cooper, who hit a double earlier in the inning. The Marlins tallied just five hits against Pirates starter Mitch Keller, who threw a career-high seven innings.

“We really didn’t get anything going,” Mattingly said.

Injury updates

▪ Outfielder Jorge Soler is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment with the Double A Pensacola Blue Wahoos on Tuesday.

▪ Second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. is continuing his baseball activities progression and played catch out to 90 feet Monday.

▪ Left-handed pitcher Jesus Luzardo is scheduled to throw two innings of live batting practice on Tuesday

▪ Right-handed pitcher Edward Cabrera threw a two-inning live batting practice session on Monday.

▪ Right-handed pitcher Louis Head is scheduled to throw two innings with Marlins’ rookie-level Florida Complex League affiliate Tuesday.

▪ Right-handed pitcher Cody Poteet’s next rehab assignment outing is slated for Tuesday with Triple A Jacksonville.

▪ Right-handed pitcher Sixto Sanchez is scheduled to throw two bullpens this week, with a focus on increasing his pitch velocity.

Up next

The Marlins have three more games with the Pirates, with the games on Tuesday and Wednesday starting at 6:40 and Thursday’s finale set for a 12:10 p.m. first pitch.

Daniel Castano (1-2, 3.60 ERA) is slated to pitch Tuesday for the Marlins, with Pablo Lopez (6-4, 2.91) set for Wednesday and Braxton Garrett (1-3, 4.25) on Thursday.

The Pirates have not announced their starting pitcher for Tuesday but JT Brubaker (2-8, 4.34) is scheduled for Wednesday and Zach Thompson (3-6, 4.38) for Thursday.