MIAMI — The Miami Marlins lost 6-1 to the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday at loanDepot park to fall to 58-85 on the season.
Some quick thoughts from the latest defeat, their 16th in the past 20 games.
On the mound
Edward Cabrera needed 33 pitches to work out of a bases-loaded jam in the first inning and kept the Phillies (80-62) off the scoreboard for five innings.
And then two big swings in the sixth flipped his outing.
Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto hit back-to-back home runs to chase Cabrera after 5 1/3 innings and give Philadelphia the lead for good.
Harper’s home run to left-center field came on a middle-away changeup with a full count. Realmuto followed by sending a near middle-middle slider to straightaway center field.
The only other hit Cabrera allowed Wednesday was a first-pitch single to Kyle Schwarber to begin the game, although he did issue three walks and hit two more batters.
In 11 starts this season, Cabrera has a 2.70 ERA with 63 strikeouts against 30 walks over 60 innings. He has pitched at least five innings while allowing no more than two earned runs in seven of those 11 starts.
The Phillies added the rest of their runs on a Jean Segura double in the sixth against Richard Bleier and a Realmuto three-run home run in the seventh against Huascar Brazoban.
Lewin Diaz’s glovework
The first baseman’s high-end defense has been highly touted for some time now.
It was on display again Wednesday when he took charge on two separate inning-ending double plays.
In the second inning, Diaz snared a Brandon Marsh line drive before stepping on first base to double up Jean Segura, who was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning.
One inning later, Diaz grabbed a Bryce Harper groundball down the line on a bounce, stepped on first and threw to shortstop Miguel Rojas covering second base to get Rhys Hoskins to complete the double play.
Diaz entered Wednesday with four defensive runs saved this season, which was tied with Carlos Santana, Alfonso Rivas and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for the third most in MLB. He trails just the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Christian Walker (16) and the Colorado Rockies’ CJ Cron (seven).
A rookie gets his first hits
After going 0 for 3 in his MLB debut on Tuesday, infielder Jordan Groshans posted a multi-hit game on Wednesday.
His first career MLB hit was a sharp single to center field with two outs in the second inning on a near middle-middle cutter from Phillies pitcher Kyle Gibson. Groshans then logged his second hit with a groundball single through the left side of the infield on an 0-2 count in the fifth inning. And then in the seventh, he laced a Brad Hand sinker into center field to cap his three-hit night.
Problems on the bases cut a rally short
The Marlins scored their only run in the first inning when they strung together four consecutive hits against Gibson.
But two of those four who logged hits ended up recording outs on the basepaths to stymie any attempt to build on the rally. Rojas was picked off at first base after hitting a one-out single. Brian Anderson, Nick Fortes and JJ Bleday all followed with singles of their own — with Bleday’s hit scoring Anderson from second base — but Fortes was tagged out after getting caught between second and third base on Bleday’s hit to end the inning.
The Marlins recorded just four more hits the rest of the game — three of which were by Groshans. Wednesday is the 34th game this season in which the Marlins have either been shut out or held to one run.
