Marlins Enter Mets Series Facing Concerns With Pitching

It seemed like the one thing that could shake the Miami Marlins out of their funk was playing the New York Mets. 

After dropping the last two games against the Toronto Blue Jays earlier this week, the aforementioned theory will once again be tested this weekend. The Marlins travel to the Big Apple to once again take on the New York Mets on Friday. 

The pitching was fantastic against the Mets last weekend in Miami. The Marlins held the Mets to a total of two runs during the three-game series. This time around, the Marlins enter the series facing concerns with their pitching. 

The Marlins should be fine in the opener with Max Meyer on the mound. Meyer has an earned run average of 2.52 so far this season and with a 5-0 record, he is the only starting pitcher in the Major Leagues without a loss. He will start against Freddie Peralta (3-4, 3.52 ERA), whom the Marlins teed off on in their previous encounter. 

However, after Meyer, the Marlins face a plethora of pitching concerns. Except for their young, emerging ace, every other starting pitcher has been inconsistent throughout the season. 

Most recently, Eury Pérez was seemingly coming out of a funk with two straight strong starts. Against the Blue Jays on Wednesday, he had nine strikeouts in four scoreless innings, as the Marlins were holding onto a 1-0 lead for dear life. 

Pérez said during his press conference through Marlins interpreter Luis Dorante Jr. that he was a “bit happy for my performance,” but then upon talking to his coaches, he “felt tightness right there in my leg and I couldn’t get up.”

“I would say on a scale from 1-10, I would give a 10,” Pérez said. “It was very painful. I knew I was not going to be able to go out there.”

The Marlins announced on Wednesday that Pérez suffered a right hamstring spasm and will undergo imaging to determine the severity. Should he go on the Injured List, the rotation will once again test its extinguished depth. 

The Marlins finished 11-15 in a stretch of 26 games in 27 days. During that time, their No. 4 spot on the rotation went through a constant exchange of hats. To put it in perspective, Chris Paddack was the fourth starter entering that stretch and is now slated to start on Friday for the Cincinnati Reds. 

Robby Snelling was given his chance to show his stuff at the big league level. However, after his MLB debut, he was scratched with an elbow injury before his second start and put on the shelf after undergoing surgery. 

Braxton Garrett then had his chance to make his big return from elbow surgery but only went a combined 4.1 innings in two starts before being sent back down to Triple-A Jacksonville. Maybe he gets another chance should Pérez get shelved. He recently went four innings with five strikeouts and two runs allowed against Charlotte before the game got suspended due to weather on Wednesday. 

The Marlins sent Tyler Phillips from the bullpen to the mound to start Sunday’s game against the Mets. He started a bullpen day with 3.2 innings of shutout baseball and four strikeouts. 

“Instead of coming in in the sixth inning, I did it in the first inning,” Phillips said on Sunday. 

Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said they plan to start Phillips again on Saturday against the Mets and that, “It might take us a couple starts to build him out a little bit.” 

“We’ll kind of look to just increase from there, but we anticipated this to be Tyler having this opportunity to run with this spot, knowing that it’s reversible, that we believe he’s going to do it well,” McCullough said. “We certainly know what he can do out of the bullpen in a variety of roles, and this opens up an opportunity.”

The chief pitching concern is Sandy Alcantara. The season started with Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix predicting to reporters that this would be the former Cy Young Award winner’s best season. The Marlins ace lived up to the hype early with 24 consecutive scoreless innings to start the season. 

Alcantara entered May with a 3.04 ERA through seven starts. Bendix doubled down on his initial assessment earlier in the month, saying Alcantara is “really close to being that vintage-level Sandy.”

“And it's a lot better than I think he started last year for sure,” he said. 

Alcantara now has an ERA of 4.66 after giving up 37 runs in 51 innings over his previous nine starts. His most recent start was his worst start of the season, with eight runs allowed on 10 hits, including a grand slam against a former teammate in an 8-1 loss at Toronto on Tuesday. 

The 30-year-old Alcantara said during his postgame presser that, “Maybe I'm getting old in the league.”

“People start to know myself a lot. But it's part of the game,” Alcantara said. “You’ve got to keep competing. It doesn't matter what happens.” 

Things can change with another successful series over the Mets. Pitching is fluid in baseball and the Marlins can calm their own concerns with a string of solid starts. 

One thing about inconsistencies, is the demonstration of both the good and bad. 

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