Pirates Can’t Keep Marlins Bats Quiet In 8-1 Loss To Miami

PITTSBURGH — After splitting a four-game series in Miami last week, the Pirates and Marlins met again for the first of three games on Friday night at PNC Park. After going 37 straight innings without scoring a run, which tied a franchise record, the Marlins bats woke up for eight against Pittsburgh in their 8-1 win over the Bucs

The Marlins put up four runs against Pirates’ starter Zach Thompson in the fourth inning. Miguel Rojas doubled home a run and the Marlins tacked on another on a Thompson wild pitch. Nick Fortes drove in a run on a groundout, and Joey Wendle pushed Miami ahead 4-1 with a run-scoring single.

Miami pushed across three more runs in the sixth inning as both Fortes and Wendle collected another round of RBI-hits.

It was a rough outing for Thompson who had not allowed more than two earned runs in a start in nearly two months. Thompson was tagged for seven earned runs in 5.1 innings on nine hits, two walks and two strikeouts.

Avisaíl García homered the other way off of Dillon Peters in the seventh to put Miami ahead by a score of 8-1.

As poorly as the pitching was for the Pirates, the offense was even worse. Marlins’ starter Braxton Garrett was too much for the Pirates’ offense to handle. Just like in his start last Thursday against the Bucs, Garrett breezed through six innings. He limited the Pirates to just one run on two hits, one walk and recorded seven strikeouts.

The lone blemish on Garrett was when Jason Delay led off the third inning with his first career homerun, a 354-foot lined-shot that tucked inside the left field foul pole. The blast put the Pirates ahead 1-0.

Jason Delay just hit his first Major League home run! pic.twitter.com/6JdbeG4Apv

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) July 23, 2022

Other than Delay, the rest of the Pirates lineup combined to go 1 for 26. Ke’Bryan Hayes recorded an infield single in the first.

The Pirates will look to bounce back on Saturday night. Jose Quintana (2-5, 3.99 ERA) will make his 19th start of the season for the Pirates. He will be opposite Marlins rookie right-hander Max Meyer (0-1, 8.44 ERA).