ATLANTA — The Miami Marlins may be in the midst of one of their best seasons in franchise history midway through the 2023 campaign, but one big question mark remained heading into this weekend.
Would they be able to compete against the Atlanta Braves, the National League East’s standard bearer for the past half decade and the only team in the NL with a better record than the Marlins entering the weekend?
Their first attempt failed.
The Braves pummeled the Marlins in a 16-4 rout at Truist Park on Friday to begin a three-game series.
Miami falls to 48-35, snapping a five-game win streak overall and a run of seven consecutive road wins. Atlanta improves to 54-27.
The Marlins are 1-7 against the Braves this season and have been outscored 70-26 in those eight games. The 16 runs scored were the most allowed in a game this season by the Marlins.
Here are three takeaways from the game.
Tone was set from the start
Marlins pitching entered Friday having given up just 21 runs in the first inning of games, the fewest in MLB.
The Braves, meanwhile, entered the series having scored 76 runs in the first inning of games, the most in MLB.
Something had to give.
On Friday, the advantage went to the Braves, with Atlanta scoring five runs in the opening frame against Bryan Hoeing to take a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
Ronald Acuna Jr. led off the inning with an infield single, easily beating the throw from third baseman Jon Berti. After an Ozzie Albies flyout, Austin Riley hit a double to center field to score Acuna from first base before Matt Olson hit a two-run home run to give Atlanta a 3-0 lead.
Hoeing then struck out Sean Murphy for the second out before walking Marcell Ozuna and giving up a second home run, a no-doubter from Eddie Rosario.
Friday was the first time this season the Marlins allowed more than two runs in the first inning of a game.
Hoeing ultimately gave up a career-high-tying seven runs over 3 2/3 innings.
The Braves then scored another seven runs against Archie Bradley, who pitched the next 2 1/3 innings before turning the game to Steven Okert in the seventh and JT Chargois in the eighth.
Home run happy
The Braves hit six home runs to score 11 of their 16 runs on Friday.
Olson hit two home runs. Rosario, Murphy, Riley and Acuna hit the other four.
It’s the second time this season the Marlins have allowed at least five home runs in a game. The other time? That was also against the Braves, who swatted six home runs against Miami in a 14-6 win on May 3. The Braves also had a five home run game against the Marlins on April 24 in an 11-0 win.
It’s just the 10th time in franchise history Miami has allowed six home runs in a game.
The franchise record for home runs allowed in a game is seven, done twice — both in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season (Sept. 9, 2020, against the Braves and Aug. 12, 2020 against the Toronto Blue Jays).
Miami, for its part, got in on the home runs Friday as well. The Marlins swatted two home runs in the third inning — a two-run shot by Jesus Sanchez and a solo home run by Jorge Soler — to score three of their four runs but it was nowhere near what Atlanta was able to do in the series opener.
Jacob Stallings exits early
Marlins catcher Jacob Stallings was removed from the game in the fifth inning with left ankle soreness. He appeared to be in discomfort following his at-bat that inning that ended with a strikeout.
Nick Fortes replaced Stallings behind home plate for the rest of the game.
It’s worth noting Miami only has two catchers — Stallings and Fortes — on both their 26-man active roster and 40-man roster.
Should Stallings have to miss time, Miami’s options at Triple-A Jacksonville are Austin Allen, Paul McIntosh (the team’s No. 26 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline) and Santiago Chavez.
