Miami Marlins squeak past San Diego avoiding brooms

Miami, Florida – The Miami Marlins held on to edge out the San Diego Padres 7-6 nearly botching their third straight game to end the losing streak. Max Meyer tossed a career-high six and a third innings allowing four runs on seven hits. The righty struck out four going deep enough to help the worn-out bullpen ultimately get the dub snapping the three-game skid.

BURGER DOES IT AGAIN! Jake homers to center field. He's gone yard all weekend in three straight games against the Padres. It's his 22nd blast of 2024.#marlinsbeisbol pic.twitter.com/qYaDJ7rnaD

— Gabriel Garcia (@Gabewritesports) August 11, 2024

Jake Burger homered in his third straight game ensuring he was a bane to San Diego’s pitching all weekend long. On top of that, Jake has homered in eight of the last 13 games. Burger has been on a tear recording 12 homers in 23 games during the second half. He went three-for-four compiling three runs and two RBIs.

The Burger King wasn’t the only one having it his way. As the team clung to a one-run lead, Jesús Sánchez went deep in his only hit of the day after the seventh-inning stretch affording much-needed insurance runs. It was his 14th bomb of 2024.

Strong start

The Fish started with a lead-off single from Xavier Edwards motoring his way to third on the up-the-middle poke from Burger. With one out and runners at the corners, Jonah Bride managed a soft grounder to third for the RBI hit.  Otto Lopez made it 2-0 via a liner deflected by second baseman Jake Cronenworth scoring Burger.

Meyer working with a two-run cushion now. #marlinsbeisbol pic.twitter.com/KilvGnxxdT

— Gabriel Garcia (@Gabewritesports) August 11, 2024

A pair of errors in the second allowed the Marlins to extend their lead. Derek Hill reached on a fielding error by shortstop Ha-Seong Kim. Hill then scored on an E-6 from Luis Arraez during Edwards’ grounder towards the middle. Burger propelled Miami further crushing one up the middle making it 5-0.

Never going away

The top of the fourth was where Meyer found his first rough patch, bailing himself out with runners at the corners through the 6-4-3 double play. San Diego began to chip away, however. Xander Bogaerts scored in the fifth on the David Peralta ground out. In the sixth Arraez cranked a double off the right-field fence putting two runners in scoring position with nobody out. The Friars used the momentum to make it 5-3 thanks to groundouts from Jurickson Profar and Jake Cronenworth pushing their teammates across.

Play is under review. #MarlinsBeisbol pic.twitter.com/UZy0kGqcle

— Gabriel Garcia (@Gabewritesports) August 11, 2024

San Diego crept closer in the seventh when Peralta hit an RBI double. Things shifted after the seventh-inning stretch. Sanchez airmailed the ball to the upper deck flashing some lumber in the two-run blast. The Padres refused to give up as Donovan Solano took Andrew Nardi deep making it 7-6. It was his fifth homer of the season and the first home run at the ballpark in nearly 10 years.

Coach Skip Schumaker on the wild ending to today's game.#MarlinsBeisbol pic.twitter.com/GvAFPJe23v

— Gabriel Garcia (@Gabewritesports) August 11, 2024

Just when things weren’t exciting enough, Kim nearly tied it with a two-out home run to left that was deflected over the fence by Kyle Stowers. The call was overturned after further review allowing George Soriano to punch out Luis Campusano to end it.

Impressions

There is never a dull moment with this team. As coach Skip Schumaker so aptly put it, no lead was safe this weekend. The Miami Marlins are now 5-7 since the trade deadline. Even though the season is a wash, there are still evaluations to be made. The front office has signaled it’s preparing for next season and beyond.

The Burger King. His wife asked him if he was even human. #MarlinsBeisbol pic.twitter.com/gFcJ8EXXEV

— Gabriel Garcia (@Gabewritesports) August 11, 2024

Edwards was hitting .360 for the season leading off the game with a hit and swiping his 16th base of 2024. Emmanuel Rivera is filling a smaller role hitting .216, however, in his last seven games, Rivera’s batting average hovers at .286 currently showing an upward trend. Jonah Bride looks to be a larger asset to the lineup. Bride homered in two of the last seven games heading into Sunday. He went 1-for-3 and is hitting .292 in the last seven games.

The guy who is really struggling is Kyle Stowers. Check this out. Before today Stowers was hitting .048 the last seven contests and .191 for the season. In his short time with the Fish Stowers is batting .063 illustrating a lot of issues at the plate. Part of the Trevor Rogers trade, in 11 games as a Marlin Stowers had 6 multi-strike out games. This is worthy of “You’re Killing Me Smalls”. Hopefully, he turns it around.