MIAMI _ For so much of the early part of the season, the Miami Marlins' bullpen appeared to be a strength. There wasn't a collection of household names, rather there was a collection of untested power arms and they often rose to the challenge when a young starting rotation couldn't go deep into games.
Their run of success ended this weekend at Marlins Park when the Atlanta Braves came to town. On Saturday, Nick Anderson and Tyler Kinley melted down on the way to a blowout loss. On Sunday, Miami's bullpen gave up the only runs _ including two in the 10th inning _ of a 3-1 loss to the Braves.
After neither side could manage a run against the opposing starting pitcher, both offenses came alive to varying degrees in the late innings. Atlanta started with a solo home run in the seventh. The Marlins (9-24) answered with a run in the eighth to force extra innings, the Braves got to relief pitcher Tayron Guerrero. Atlanta scored two runs off Guerrero (1-1) in the 10th inning to finish off a sweep in front of 11,885 in Miami.
After back-to-back losses by their bullpen, the Marlins now have the third worst bullpen era in MLB.
Outfielder Nick Markakis finally jump started the Braves' offense once they got into the bullpen. Starting pitcher Pablo Lopez threw six shutout innings for Miami before manager Don Mattingly lifted him for Drew Steckenrider to start the seventh. Markakis promptly launched a solo homer to right off the relief pitcher to lead off the frame and give Atlanta a 1-0 lead. The Braves' only other runs came against Guerrero, when outfielder Ender Inciarte drove home pitcher Max Fried with a double, then scored on a sacrifice fly by Charlie Culberson.
The Marlins needed one inning to settle in against the Braves' relievers after starting pitcher Julio Teheran threw six shutout innings of his own. Atlanta turned to Josh Tomlin with one out in the bottom of the seventh to face the top of Miami's order. The Marlins countered by inserting versatile infielder Jon Berti as a pinch hitter for outfielder Curtis Granderson and Berti laced a single to center. Corner infielder Martin Prado followed with another single to center, then slugging third baseman Brian Anderson ripped a single to left to tie the game at 1. After managing only two hits in the first seven innings, Miami more than doubled its total in three batters.
It was, however, all the Marlins could manage. Tomlin (1-0) got infielder Miguel Rojas to ground into a double play to end the inning, then pitched a 1-2-3 ninth. Fellow relief pitcher Luke Jackson, a graduate of Calvary Christian Academy in Fort Lauderdale, entered for the 10th and threw another 1-2-3 inning for his second save of the season.
Pablo Lopez gave the Marlins a chance with another breakthrough outing. All season long, Lopez has thrived the first time through the order, then struggled when seeing hitters the second time. The trend mostly held true against the Braves, but Lopez managed to limit the damage altogether the second time he saw Atlanta's hitters.
The right-handed pitchers' first three innings were dominant. He mowed through the order once, allowing just one walk to Markakis, and struck out four in his first three frames. In the fourth, he worked around two hits with the help of a double play, then survived a one-out double in the fifth by striking out the last two batters. Some of Lopez's same issues popped up the second time he went through the order _ the Braves did go 3 for 9 _ but he stayed on the attack and avoided some of the walks which have plagued him through the middle innings.
So far in 2019, opponents are 6 for 59 the first time they see Lopez in a game and 17 for 56 the second time.
"Pablo just needs to be himself, just not try to think he has to do something totally different the second time through the order, so just stay aggressive, keep using his stuff, but you've always got to be aggressive with it," manager Don Mattingly said before the game. "He doesn't always have to go to something different just because it's the second time through."
