MIAMI — Shortly after Jon Berti took the four-time All-Star deep in the first inning on Wednesday afternoon, Madison Bumgarner took exception with the home plate umpire Ryan Wills’ strike zone.
Bumgarner was then ejected by first base umpire Dan Bellino for vehemently arguing to the point where his teammates had to escort him back to the Diamondbacks dugout.
A turning point for the recently-struggling Marlins, right?
Guess again.
Even after the Marlins seemed to overcome more struggles from starter Elieser Hernandez with a late rally, its bullpen failed after Anthony Bender surrendered a two-run, ninth-inning home run to Pavin Smith resulting in an 8-7 loss to the Diamondbacks.
Smith, a Palm Beach Gardens High alum, hit a high fly ball that carried just past the right field fence just after center fielder Daulton Varsho singled off Bender with one out.
It was Bender’s second blown save this season.
The Marlins (12-12) dropped their fourth in a row after putting together a seven-game winning streak and dropped all three games to Arizona by one run.
It was the Diamondbacks’ first sweep at loanDepot Park since sweeping a four-game set May 18-21, 2015.
The loss squandered a milestone game for Berti, who recorded the first multi-home run game of his career.
The Marlins erased a three-run deficit with two in the seventh and two in the eighth as Berti and Jesus Aguilar hit back-to-back homers in the earlier frame to start the comeback. It was the first set of consecutive home runs this season for the Marlins, who have hit 24 overall.
Bryan De La Cruz’s two-out RBI single tied the game at 6 in the bottom of the eighth and Jazz Chisholm Jr. scored on a wild pitch by D’Backs reliever Kenyan Middleton to put the Marlins ahead.
But a bullpen that has continued to look for answers at the closer spot faltered.
The Marlins took a 3-0 lead after two innings following Bumgarner’s dismissal, but it didn’t last as Hernandez allowed five runs on five hits while walking three batters and striking out three. Hernandez lasted four innings and threw 78 pitches (48 for strikes). He entered the game having allowed a National League-high six home runs in four starts, and gave up a seventh in the fourth inning when Varsho belted a two-run homer to right-center field to put Arizona ahead 5-3.
The Marlins’ biggest strength has weakened over that span as their starting pitchers have allowed 19 earned runs over their past 18⅔ innings during this losing streak.
While the top of the Marlins’ rotation has been solid with Sandy Alcantara and Pablo Lopez off to strong starts overall, and an improved Jesus Luzardo is delivering on the back end, the middle duo of Hernandez (2-2, 6.66 ERA) and Trevor Rogers (1-4, 6.14) has struggled.
Aguilar, who went 3 for 5, singled in the ninth with one out, but Jorge Soler and Garrett Cooper flied out to end the game.
