Takeaways: Miami Marlins put up 9 runs, not enough to beat Nationals
In was the most entertaining game of the season so far, the Miami Marlins fell to the Washington Nationals by a score of 12-9.
Here's everything you need to know from the game:
Ya like Jazz?
After weeks of complaints about the Marlins being unable to hit with runners in scoring position, they finally had a nice offensive game. Miami got off to a hot start in this one as Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit his fifth career grand slam to give them a quick 6-0 lead over the Nationals.
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The Marlins entered the day hitting just .239 with runners in scoring position, which surprisingly isn't even in the bottom 10 of the league for this season. Today, though they hit a whopping .417 in such situations.
Pitching and defense fails once again
Despite finally getting some help from the offense, once up 7-0 in this one, the pitching and defense fell apart once again.
Ryan Weathers and Anthony Bender gave up nine runs over just the fourth and fifth innings, Miami was never able to get back out in front.
Vidal Brujan committed his fourth error of the season, the team is now up to five in the last two games alone.
Something needs to be done about Josh Bell.
Even in games where the Marlins score nine runs, there is still something to complain about with the lineup. Bell was coming off of a nice stretch to end 2023 and certainly earned his spot at third in the lineup. That has not been the case in 2024. He entered the game with a measly .572 OPS and then proceeded to go 0-for-4 at the plate, only reaching thanks to a Marlins error.
He simply cannot still be put in the three slot on the lineup until he starts to wake back up at the plate. It's almost impossible to get a groove going if you have someone batting .176 right there.
When you're the Marlins, you never want a player's baseball savant page to have the same primary colors as your team (unless it's a city connect day)
Senior Writer Also: Contributing Writer for Braves Today and recent graduate of the LSU Manship School of Mass Communication! You can reach him on X: @DillySanders