Troubling trends continue as the Miami Marlins lose to Yankees, fall to 1-11
As the Miami Marlins continue to spiral to start the 2024 season — with their 3-2 loss to the New York Yankees on Tuesday dropping them to 1-11 — a few troubling trends have continued to impact the team.
The first is obvious: They’re not winning.
The 2024 Marlins are the 19th team in the MLB history in the Modern Era (since 1901) to lose at least 11 of their first 12 games of a season and first since the 2010 Baltimore Orioles. No team that has started 1-11 or worse has ever finished better than .500 (the 1973 Cardinals finished 81-81).
Six of the first 18 teams lost at least 100 games — including the 1998 Florida Marlins, who went 54-108.
But beyond the win-loss column, two noticeable problems that have plagued the Marlins this season showed up once again on Tuesday.
At the plate, the Marlins once again struggled against a left-handed pitcher. Yankees southpaw Carlos Rodon held Miami to two unearned runs over six-plus innings — and both of those runs charged to him coming after he was taken out in the seventh inning after the Marlins loaded the bases with no outs on a Josh Bell walk, Jazz Chisholm Jr. reach via error and Tim Anderson single. Jesus Sanchez had a pinch-hit RBI groundout and Nick Gordon a pinch-hit sacrifice fly against Ian Hamilton to cut Miami’s deficit to 3-2 but the Marlins would get no closer.
Before that, Rodon held the Marlins to just three hits and one walk while striking out six through six shutout innings.
“He comes at you,” Anderson said of Rodon. “He competes. His stuff was moving all over tonight. You couldn’t really lock in on one spot.”
But the Marlins’ struggles against lefties extend beyond Rodon.
They entered Tuesday with the most plate appearances against left-handed pitching in all of MLB, with 205. They also entered the day hitting just .175 against those left-handed pitchers — the second worst mark in MLB ahead of only the Chicago White Sox (.153).
“We’ve had a lot of them — a lot of good ones, too, unfortunately,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “We’ve just got to figure out a way to put together consistent at-bats.”
On the mound, Marlins lefty A.J. Puk continues to struggle with his pitch count in the first inning.
Puk, who moved into the starting rotation this season after being used as a high-leverage reliever in 2023, threw 29 pitched and walked two batters in the first inning against the Yankees (10-2) on Tuesday.
He managed to get out of the frame without allowing a run, but it put his pitch count in a bind for the rest of the outing.
Overall, Puk pitched 4 2/3 innings and gave up two runs (one earned) four hits and five walks with two strikeouts. He needed 98 pitches to get those 14 outs.
Through three starts this season, 84 of Puk’s 254 pitches — 33.1 percent — have come in the first inning. He threw 21 pitches in the first inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates on March 29 and 34 pitches in the first inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday.
“The first inning’s been the toughest inning for me so far,” Puk said. “I’ve got to do better getting ready and executing from the start.”
Puk settled in after the first inning on Tuesday. He gave up a solo home run to Alex Verdugo in second on middle-middle sweeper but limited damage otherwise. The Yankees scored an unearned run on him in the fifth on a Giancarlo Stanton double after Juan Soto reached base on an Anderson throwing error. The Yankees scored the eventual game-winning run on a Soto single in the sixth against Sixto Sanchez that scored Jon Berti.
“When he’s on the attack, he’s fine,” Schumaker said of Puk. “We’ve got to get him in the strike zone, on the attack, more consistently. He’s just shooting himself in the foot with the walks. ... We’ve got to get him deeper into games.”
