Jesus Aguilar smashed his helmet to the ground after he just missed a chance to finally put the Miami Marlins ahead of the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday.
It has been the story of the Marlins’ last few weeks — just missing. When they dropped 7 of 8 on their most recent road trip, they lost five of the games by three runs or fewer. When they lost 2 of 3 to end their last homestand, the two losses were by three combined runs. On Wednesday, Aguilar’s inning-ending lineout in the bottom of the seventh left Miami trailing by one run and the Marlins loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth before Corey Dickerson grounded out to end a 4-3 loss in Miami.
The Marlins (26-35) scored once on a single by middle infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the fifth inning and twice more on a two-run home run by outfielder Adam Duvall in the seventh, but they collected nine hits and left 18 runners on base to lose for the 11th time in 14 games.
When the skid began, Miami was fresh off a series win against the New York Mets and sat just two games out of first place in the National League East. Now the Marlins are 7 1/2 back of the first-place Mets.
For the second straight game, the Rockies (25-37) scored in the top of the first and this time Miami never rallied. On Tuesday, the Marlins called up Braxton Garrett to replace Daniel Castano after he became the latest starting pitcher to land on the injured list with a left shoulder impingement. Making his first start of the season and third of his career, Garrett (0-1) went four innings, and gave up two runs on five hits and three walks. Colorado tacked on two more runs against the bullpen and it was too much for Miami’s struggling offense to overcome in front of 4,563 at loanDepot park.
Pitcher Austin Gomber, a former star for the FAU Owls, went five innings and allowed five hits and one earned run with five strikeouts. Gomber (5-5) entered the game with a 4.12 ERA and lowered it to 3.95 against the Marlins, who are averaging just three runs per game in their last 14 and 3.8 for the season.
MARLINS PROMOTE NO. 5 PROSPECT DIAZ
Miami is bringing another one of its top prospects up to the Majors, but this promotion is “not ideal,” Kim Ng said.
The Marlins promoted Lewin Diaz to the big-league club Wednesday to replace fellow first baseman Garrett Cooper, whom Miami placed on the 10-day injured list with a lumbar strain. Even after Diaz belted seven home runs in 28 minor-league games this year, the Marlins’ move is frustrating because of how it could cut into Diaz’s short-term development. In Miami, Diaz will be blocked by fellow first baseman Jesus Aguilar, who has been the Marlins’ most productive hitter this year.
“It’s not ideal,” Ng said. “Obviously, Aguilar is who he is.”
Diaz will “play some first,” the general manager said, and mostly “be a bat off the bench.”
Diaz played in one MLB game earlier this year and appeared in 14 last year. In 45 career plate appearances, the 24-year-old is batting .140 with two doubles, three walks and no home runs. Aguilar, meanwhile, entered Wednesday as Miami’s leader in hits, home runs, RBIs and total bases.
Aguilar once again got the starting nod Wednesday for the second game of a three-game series against the Colorado Rockies, batting third and playing first base at loanDepot park.
Diaz does give the Marlins a platoon option — he bats left-handed, while Aguilar bats right-handed — but another injury to an important contributor has once again put Miami in a bind and Ng said she’s not sure yet how long the injury will keep Cooper sidelined.
ROJAS’ BLUNT ASSESSMENT OF STRUGGLES
It was hard for Miguel Rojas to watch from afar while he’s Marlins slogged through a disastrous road trip the last two weeks. The shortstop is trying to be patient while he lets his fractured left index finger, but he was also itching to return as he watched Miami drop 7 of 8 on its three-city trip.
Rojas hopes he’ll be able to return as early as next week — he has started playing catch, taking grounders and hitting off a tee — and help get the Marlins back on track after they dropped 6 1/2 games back of the first-place New York Mets.
“It was tough just because I was home and I wasn’t there with them grinding every day, and going to the ballpark and going through what it was for the whole team,” Rojas said. “You want to help in any way possible. When everything clicks with this team, we can see that it’s pretty fun. The thing is when we start pressing, we start trying to do too much and the team is not playing with confidence that we can do this is when things like that start to happen. The record itself is going to show one thing, but the other thing is when we know what this team can do when everybody’s clicking and everybody’s doing their thing.”
Rojas, Miami’s unofficial captain, offered a blunt assessment of what’s wrong with the Marlins right now: They’re too one-dimensional offensively.
“That’s one of the things that we, as an organization, need to get better,” said Rojas, who reiterated he wants to play the rest of his career in Miami. “We need to have multiple ways to win games, not just the home run part. We need to be a team that moves the runners, we need to be a team that is able to put some hits together, we need to be a team that is not striking out way too much and those are the things that we need to get better at, and watching from home that’s one of the things I’ve been watching. And I just can’t wait to come back so I can continue to do something to help that part, not just to be the team that is going to sit around and wait for the three-run homer because that’s what I’m seeing that we lack ways to win games without the extra base or homer.”
Rojas, who has missed nearly two weeks, has been one of the Marlins’ best hitters this year. His .275 batting average and .354 on-base percentage lead Miami’s qualified hitters, and the Marlins averaged only three runs per game without him on the road trip.
He said he has talked about his issues with Miami’s hitting coaches and even CEO Derek Jeter to get an outside perspective.
“Baseball changed a lot, but that doesn’t mean that us, as an organization, needs to change,” Rojas said. “Our main goal right here is winning games and the only thing that we can do to win games is to do our job, and I don’t care. We have different kind of players — we can’t have nine players in the lineup who are going to do what [Adam] Duvall does or what Agui does, or what [Starling] Marte brings to the table.
“We have a guy like Magneuris Sierra, who can run, bunt and put the ball in play, and play the small ball. Jazz [Chisholm Jr.] can bunt, he can hit a homer — that’s why he’s so much fun to watch and everybody likes watching Jazz play the game because he can do so many things. The only thing is I’m asking him and I’m asking my teammates, and my players to combine everything and don’t become that player that can do just one thing. If you have the full package to do a lot of things, use it because they’re there for a reason and we need you to bunt sometimes, and get on base or take a walk, or try to go for the fences. The situation of the game will call and will give you the opportunity to do a lot of things.”
