New York Yankees get to Jesus Luzardo in fourth inning as Miami Marlins fall to 1-10
For three innings, Jesus Luzardo maneuvered around a potent New York Yankees lineup despite not having pristine command.
And then came the fourth inning.
Anthony Volpe and Juan Soto each belted out three-run homers as part of a nine-batter inning. Miami never recovered in a 7-0 loss to the Yankees at Yankee Stadium on Monday to begin a three-game series.
Instead of building on their first win of the season, the Marlins were shut out for the first time this season, fall to 1-10 and become the first team since the 2010 Baltimore Orioles to drop at least 10 of their first 11 games. Only one other Marlins team in franchise history had also started 1-10: The 1998 team that finished 54-108.
Of the 30 MLB teams that started a season 1-10 before this year, only two finished with a winning record: the 1983 Houston Astros (85-77) and the 1922 Cincinnati Reds (86-68).
Luzardo worked around three walks and a double through the first three innings, albeit needing 53 pitches to get his first nine outs. The Yankees were patient, waiting for Luzardo to throw hittable pitches inside the strike zone.
He wasn’t perfect by any means, but he got the job done.
In the fourth inning, he gave the Yankees pitches to hit. And they pounced.
Giancarlo Stanton began the inning with a hard-hit single to left on a first-pitch, middle-middle sinker. Anthony Rizzo followed third-pitch groundball single to right to put runners on the corners before Volpe went down and got hold of a low slider that he lifted 388 feet to left-center for the first three-run home run of the inning.
An Alex Verdugo double on a near middle-middle fastball and Jose Trevino four pitch walk put two more on base immediately after the home run. A Jon Berti sac bunt moved both over 90 feet and a Gleyber Torres flyout to right got Luzardo one out away from limiting the damage to just three runs.
But Soto then crushed a first-pitch, up-and-in changeup 384 feet to right for the second three-run homer of the frame. The inning ended on an Aaron Judge first-pitch popout.
Nine batters. Five hits, including two home runs. One walk. All on 19 pitches.
The Yankees (9-2) added one more run against Luzardo on a Verdugo RBI single in the fifth that scored Stanton, who led off the inning with a double.
Through three starts, Luzardo has a 7.20 ERA (12 earned runs in 15 innings) and has allowed four home runs.
Miami’s offense, meanwhile, mustered just two hits in eight innings against Yankees starter and Hialeah native Nestor Cortes — with both of those hits coming from Bryan De La Cruz.
