Familiar struggles drop Marlins below .500 for 1st time in 3 months

MIAMI -- “Well, y’all want to do this again?” David Robertson said begrudgingly as the media scrum approached his locker at loanDepot park on Wednesday night.

The Marlins had just lost to the Rays, 3-0, in 10 innings to fall below .500 (66-67) for the first time since May 25. Robertson had been on the hook for all three runs (two earned). A few days prior, he had blown his third save since joining Miami at the Trade Deadline.

“It seems like nothing's worked out for me since I've come to Miami,” Robertson said. “So hopefully, I'll turn it around in this next series coming up."

This time, though, it wasn’t entirely his fault.

Robertson gave up a pair of hits to start the 10th, allowing the automatic runner to score from second base. Then, Josh Lowe stole second, leaving first base open. After Robertson struck out Yandy Díaz, up stepped Randy Arozarena with runners on the corners. It would have made sense to walk Arozarena, giving Miami a forceout at any base and making a double play a possibility. Plus, Arozarena was batting .306 over his previous 10 games.

Instead, the Marlins decided to let Robertson pitch to Arozarena, who somehow made contact on a knuckle curve way down and away. He slipped a two-run single through the left side, putting away Miami for good.

“There was thought,” manager Skip Schumaker said regarding walking Arozarena. “[Luke] Raley was still on the bench -- he could [have] come off and had bases loaded [to pinch-hit] for [Harold] Ramírez, just like they flipped out last night. So you kind of pick your poison there. He got a ground ball, found a hole.”

“He's a good hitter,” Robertson said. “That's what they do. It's the end of August, you know? It's almost September. Those guys have seen a lot of pitches at this point; they've got 500 at-bats under their belt. So it's tough to get them out. You know, I made some good pitches. I just didn't make enough good pitches.”

Even if it wasn’t as many as they’d have liked, the Marlins did have opportunities. Instead, they went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and left four on base. Two runners reached third base, but one was stranded (Bryan De La Cruz in the second) and the other was picked off on a big baserunning miscue (Jesús Sánchez in the fifth inning).

Those opportunities, and any chances Miami had to win the game, were only possible thanks to an impressive effort from Jesús Luzardo and the bullpen.

Luzardo carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning, striking out eight while allowing just one hit and two walks over six scoreless frames. The left-hander has been on fire, one of the Marlins’ most reliable starters of late after a slow start to the second half.

Then, after A.J. Puk relieved Luzardo and loaded the bases on walks with one out in the seventh inning, Andrew Nardi came to the rescue, striking out Christian Bethancourt and getting Vidal Brujan to fly out to end the inning. Nardi has been crucial in helping the Marlins escape late-inning jams, posting a 1.86 ERA this month.

In the next inning, though, Nardi took a 99.3 mph single off his pitching hand and exited the game. X-rays were negative, and the left-hander said postgame he felt good and had full range of motion in his left pinkie, ring and middle fingers where the ball hit him.

“We pitched really, really well,” Schumaker said. “‘Zeus was incredible tonight. I thought [catcher] Nick Fortes did an incredible job, as well, behind the plate blocking the balls. … Nick was working his tail off. [And] Nardi coming in, getting out of a big jam -- and obviously, he got hit in the hand, but [Tanner] Scott coming back and getting [Nardi] out of that jam -- I just thought it was such a well-pitched game. It's just tough. We couldn't get anything going offensively, and it's tough to win when you don't score.”

With the loss, Miami sits three games behind San Francisco (69-64) for the third National League Wild Card spot, 2 1/2 games behind Arizona (69-65) and two games behind Cincinnati (69-66).

If a tiebreaker is needed to determine a Wild Card spot, it first goes to head-to-head matchups, then to divisional records. The Marlins won their season series over the D-backs (4-2) and split their series with the Giants (3-3) and the Reds (3-3).