MIAMI — Pablo Lopez, who is in the midst of one of the best starts to a season ever by a Marlins starting pitcher, wasn’t anywhere near himself on Wednesday night.
The Marlins, however, picked up their starter after his rare struggles led by a resilient effort from Jazz Chisholm Jr., who homered, tripled and drove in the tying run in the bottom of the ninth on a sacrifice fly that nearly wasn’t.
All of that was still not enough, however, to allow the Marlins to complete a three-game sweep of the visiting Washington Nationals as they fell, 5-4, in 10 innings at loanDepot Park.
Former Marlins All-Star Dee Strange-Gordon began the 10th as the runner on second and came around to score after a sac bunt by Victor Robles and a double by Keibert Ruiz off Daniel Castano.
The Marlins (17-20) pushed their automatic runner in the bottom of the 10th — reliever Anthony Bass — to third with two outs after a deep fly ball by Avisail Garcia. But …
Chisholm, who blasted a 412-foot solo homer to center in the bottom of the fifth to tie the game at 3, drove home Jesus Sanchez in the bottom of the ninth on a sacrifice fly to tie the game.
For a few moments, it seemed the Nationals (13-26) had hung on for the win though after appealing that Sanchez had left third base early and getting the out call initially. But after replay review, the call was overturned and the run counted, sending the game to extras.
Chisholm appeared to be a little subdued after hitting his seventh home run of the season, and was seen sipping a hot beverage and sitting inside the dugout with a towel draped over him instead of standing at the top of the rail like he usually does.
Lopez threw 82 pitches over just three innings, allowing three runs on four hits while issuing a season-high three walks and striking out a season-low two batters.
Lopez labored through what was his shortest start since going three innings on June 13, 2021 (not counting his start July 2 in Atlanta when he was ejected after one pitch for hitting Ronald Acuna Jr. or his start Oct. 3 when he was used as an opener, pitching 1 2/3 innings after recovering from a shoulder injury).
It was one of just four total outings over the past two seasons in which Lopez pitched three innings or fewer.
Lopez gave up a run in the first after allowing a leadoff triple to Cesar Hernandez, who then scored on a wild pitch. Keibert Ruiz, Alcides Escobar and Hernandez all doubled in the second inning leading to the other two runs.
Three of the four hits Lopez allowed came off his change-up, which induced only two whiffs on 10 swings (20%). This compared to his 45.3% whiff rate he had on that pitch entering Wednesday’s game which was the most in the league among pitchers who have had at least 100 swings against the pitch, according to Statcast.
This forced Lopez to rely more on his fastball to get outs.
According to Baseball Reference, Lopez’s 1.57 ERA following the rocky start still ranks second all-time in Marlins history through the first eight starts of a season behind only Dontrelle Willis’ 1.45 ERA in 2005.
It was only the second game Lopez allowed multiple runs this season (four runs — three earned — in 4 2/3 innings against the Diamondbacks on May 2).
Lopez exited the game with the Marlins trailing 3-1. But Miami rallied with a run in the third and fifth innings.
Miami received a mostly-strong effort from their bullpen, which combined to allow one run over the next six innings. The lone run came in the eighth when Anthony Bender could not record an out among the four batters he faced. Bender gave up a single to Yadiel Hernandez, walked Ruiz, gave up a single to Maikel Franco and then forced in a run when he hit Lane Thomas with a pitch.
Miguel Rojas and Erik Gonzalez led off the bottom of the third with back-to-back singles and Rojas scored three batters later on a sacrifice fly from Garrett Cooper.
