Breaking down Marlins' tough loss to Mets

MIAMI -- Jesús Aguilar knocked his team-leading 19th homer, but Anthony Bass surrendered a go-ahead dinger to Javier Báez in Wednesday night's 5-3 loss to the Mets at loanDepot park. Miami will look to secure the four-game series win in Thursday's matinee.

Below are themes that made a difference, and should be monitored moving forward:

Lack of execution
Right-hander Zach Thompson went just four innings, giving up three runs in the second inning behind some shaky defense -- including his own.

With a pair of men in scoring position and one run already across, Tomás Nido sent a grounder to Aguilar at first base. Aguilar wasn't fast on the exchange, and yet his 76.4 mph throw did beat Báez, who pulled off an impressive slide to avoid catcher Austin Jackson's tag. On the next play, Thompson fielded a comebacker off the bat of opposing pitcher Carlos Carrasco, but his throw to second got away for a potential inning-ending double play.

"Just to take a breath," Thompson said of what pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. told him. "We've been kind of talking about that a lot, just to slow down, keep myself composed and collected. We kind of go over some mechanical things a little bit and some cues, just to make sure I stay on track."

Jazz Chisholm Jr., starting at shortstop for Miguel Rojas, committed a pair of errors. His second came on J.D. Davis’ infield single in the hole, allowing two runners to advance. An insurance run then scored on a passed ball by Jackson, who made his third straight start since being acquired at the Trade Deadline.

Between shortstop and second base, Chisholm has 19 errors -- one behind Bo Bichette and Fernando Tatis Jr. for most in the Majors.

"At the end of the day, when you go out there, sometimes the errors are going to happen,” acting manager James Rowson said. “You try to analyze what's going on in each one of those plays: ‘Are you moving too quickly? Are you taking your eye off the ball? Are you trying to do too much?’ There's so many things that go into why those things happen. ... He focuses on his defense. It means a lot to him. I know that this is a guy who takes it seriously. He wants to be the best player on the field at all times. ... This guy is such a good player and he works hard at it, so I expect him to kind of move past it.”

Woes vs. Mets
The most (un)forgettable outing of Bass' season came on April 8, when the Marlins lost on a controversial walk-off hit-by-pitch to the Mets at Citi Field. At the time, it marked the offseason addition's second straight blown save to open his tenure with the club, and moved him out of the closer role.

On Wednesday, Bass took over in the eighth and allowed a leadoff homer to Báez, who chirped as he jogged home. Another run would come later in the inning on Jackson’s passed ball.

For the season, Bass has a 13.50 ERA (5 ER in 3 1/3 IP) against the Mets compared to a 3.29 ERA (14 ER in 38 1/3 IP) vs. everyone else.

"Bass does a great job," Rowson said. "Every once in a while, it just happens to be against the same team. I don't think it has anything to do with the Mets in particular. I think more or less it's just some days you have certain days, but I even went back and looked. That pitch to Báez was right on the corner -- 1-2 count right on the edge of the plate. He went out there and put a good swing on it. Javy has some ability, and he has some real bat speed, so he's able to put good swings on the ball sometimes.”

Mixing and matching
With the departure of closer Yimi García and versatile arm John Curtiss at the Deadline, bullpen roles are more fluid. Five members of the relief corps weren't around on Opening Day. Dylan Floro, who was unavailable after pitching in three straight days for the first time this season, and Anthony Bender did not appear in the game.

Rule 5 Draft pick Zach Pop continues to see higher-leverage situations, recording 1 2/3 scoreless frames. Once the Mets took a two-run lead, Rowson turned to Sean Guenther for a scoreless ninth in his MLB debut. He is the 30th pitcher Miami has used in 2021.

"We try to put our guys in the best situation possible -- that's the goal -- to put the guys in the best situation possible to succeed," Rowson said. "I thought we did that tonight, and they also showed some grit in getting some tough outs from some different players throughout that lineup, which is hard to do in some big spots. All those guys that we called on down there tonight, I thought they navigated fairly well and did a pretty good job in some tough situations."