MIAMI — The All-Star break came and went.
And the Marlins’ scoring drought continued.
After being swept by the Philadelphia Phillies last weekend and shut out in the final two of those games, the Marlins were again blanked on Thursday afternoon at loanDepot park, this time, 8-0, by the Texas Rangers.
The Marlins (43-49) have now failed to score a run for 34 consecutive innings and were shut out in three consecutive games for the first time since July 19-21, 2013 against the Brewers, matching a franchise record.
The scoreless streak is three innings short of the franchise-worst mark of 37 in a row also set during that 2013 series.
The 1968 Chicago Cubs and 1906 Philadelphia Athletics share the major league record for consecutive scoreless innings with 48 in a row.
According to the Associated Press and ESPN, the last two teams that were shut out in four consecutive games were the 2017 Kansas City Royals and 1992 Chicago Cubs. No team has been shut out in five consecutive games since 1913, which is the MLB record. The Marlins’ last run came in the second inning of their 2-1 loss to the Phillies this past Friday on a sacrifice fly by Bryan De La Cruz.
The Marlins will next try their luck at plating some runs in Pittsburgh where they begin a three-game series starting Friday. The Marlins split a four-game series at home against the Pirates from July 11-14, scoring 11 runs in those games with five coming in extras where innings begin with a runner at second base.
The Marlins’ power outage also reached a milestone in terms of franchise history.
Miami failed to hit a home run for the ninth consecutive game, tying the longest such drought in franchise history which happened twice (April 6-15, 2013 and Sept. 25-Oct. 3, 1993). The Marlins’ last home run was hit by Jesus Aguilar in the eighth inning on July 9 against the Mets.
Miami lost its fourth in a row, fell to six games back of the final National League Wild Card spot, after dropping the standalone matchup, which was a makeup game from a series postponed from the first week of the season.
The Marlins totaled seven hits and had a runner in scoring position in the first, fifth, seventh and ninth innings, but failed to score. Their best chances came in the fifth and ninth when Miami had runners on second and third with two outs each time. But Garrett Cooper struck out to end the fifth and Jacob Stallings grounded out to short to end the game.
Pablo Lopez didn’t have his best stuff either on Thursday and the Rangers took advantage. Lopez tossed five innings, allowing five runs on five hits, walked three and struck out six.
Adolis Garcia did the bulk of the damage with three RBIs including a two-run home run in the fifth inning off a 91.9-mph fastball low in the zone from Lopez.
