Marlins lose 3rd in a row with injury-thinned rotation

ATLANTA -- Just over three weeks into the season, things haven’t gone according to plan for the Marlins.

The rotation, expected to once again be the strength of the ballclub, has instead quickly become a question mark. Through 24 games, Miami has already used eight starting pitchers.

Ace Sandy Alcantara (right biceps tendinitis) had his Saturday start pushed back to Wednesday, while left-hander Trevor Rogers (biceps strain) and right-hander Johnny Cueto (biceps tightness) are on the injured list. Swingman Daniel Castano is on the seven-day Minor League IL.

Filling in for Rogers, right-hander Bryan Hoeing was chased in the fourth inning of Tuesday night’s 7-4 loss to the Braves at Truist Park. Miami (12-12) has dropped three in a row.

“We felt probably Cueto was going to be in there,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “We probably thought Castano wasn't going to be hurt right away. This is just the reality of where we're at, and a lot of teams are going through this -- not just us. You're going to be tested on your depth eventually. Didn't think it'd be this early, but this is where we're at. I still think we have enough to win games.

“Hoeing looked good the first two innings, we can build off that, can build off [Edward Cabrera]. He's had good ones and bad ones, some good ones, some bad ones. We get some consistency out of him, we'll be fine. [Jesús Luzardo] and Sandy are going to be Zeus and Sandy to me, we'll have a chance to win every single day. [Braxton Garrett] has been great, he really has. So I think we have enough to win baseball games. It's just we're putting ourselves in a hole pretty early, and it's just tough to fight back from that big of a hole. Just trying to keep that team over there within a couple of runs, so we can get back into it.”

When the starting pitching sets the tone, the Marlins are unbeatable in 2023:
• 12-0 when the team allows four runs or fewer
• 0-12 when allowing five runs or more

Entering Tuesday, Marlins starters ranked 13th in the Majors in WAR (1.7) and 14th in ERA (4.38). But how sustainable is that considering the hits taken to the organizational depth?

For example, Hoeing surrendered 17 runs in 12 2/3 innings during his cup of coffee (eight games, one start) in 2022. Due to a 40-man roster crunch last November, Miami outrighted him to Triple-A Jacksonville. Hoeing transitioned into a reliever during Spring Training and pitched out of the bullpen in his first outing at Jacksonville before starting in his next three outings (1.88 ERA).

In Tuesday’s first inning, Ronald Acuña Jr. ambushed Hoeing’s first-pitch middle-middle sinker for a double. He then stole third and scored on Austin Riley’s RBI single. Hoeing settled in until the fourth, when Sean Murphy blooped the first of three two-strike hits for a leadoff single. Three mound visits later, Hoeing was out of the game following RBI knocks from Vaughn Grissom, Sam Hilliard and Kevin Pillar.

“The first two [innings] were good,” Schumaker said. “The first two the velo was up, the movement was really good. Felt like the last two, the velo was a little down and the movement was a little down, and they took advantage a little bit on him. Unlike [Charlie] Morton, he got a lot of balls in the air. Morton had a lot of balls in the ground. It's just the difference there, but I thought the first two innings were really, really good, and something to build off.”

Pregame Tuesday, Schumaker alluded to a three-pitch mix being crucial to Hoeing’s success against a tough Braves lineup. Hoeing threw just one changeup out of his 64 pitches, with a nearly even 50/50 split of his sinker and slider.

The 26-year-old sinkerballer admitted he probably should have thrown a couple more changeups, but if he was going to get beat, he wanted it to be against his best offerings. Hoeing also couldn’t replicate his 54.8 percent ground-ball rate at Triple-A in 2023: He recorded more flyouts (three) than groundouts (two) on Tuesday.

“I think they were turning onto my slider, [which] was kind of staying up there towards the end,” said Hoeing, whose fastball maxed out more than one mph faster than in 2022. “I wasn't executing where I wanted it to go. It's a good team. They were taking advantage of the miscues I was throwing. It's just frustrating because I wanted to give this team a chance to win tonight, and I definitely didn't do that job.”