Marlins look to move past early-season struggles after 'sloppy' loss

MIAMI -- When the Marlins broke camp a month ago, no one envisioned the club -- fresh off a postseason berth -- would hold the second-worst record in the Majors.

But after Saturday’s 11-4 loss to the Nationals at loanDepot park, the Marlins are off to their worst 28-game start since 1999. The team has yet to win consecutive games or capture a series.

“We've had some injuries, but a lot of teams have had injuries,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “We just haven't played clean baseball, and we've had some tough losses. Days we hit, we don't pitch; days we pitch, we don't hit at the beginning of the season. Today was probably the sloppiest of all them, honestly.

“I can get over the first couple of weeks -- tough losses, tough breaks, whatever, walk-offs. Those things happen, and those hurt in the clubhouse. They hurt the staff, the whole deal. But when you are playing sloppy baseball like today, the fifth inning was just not who we are.”

Washington tied the game at 1 in the third on a passed ball by catcher Christian Bethancourt on a pitch inside the strike zone. Things imploded during the aforementioned five-run fifth.

After the first two batters reached, right-hander Edward Cabrera threw over to third on a sacrifice bunt. But Vidal Bruján tagged the runner on a forceout rather than attempting a double play by going across the diamond.

Cabrera then didn’t mix up his looks, so the runners executed a double steal. With the infield in, Jacob Young squibbed a ball to first baseman Emmanuel Rivera, who didn’t charge the ball. Bethancourt tagged the runner on the play, but the ball came out of his glove. Following another Cabrera walk, Jesse Winker deposited a curveball into the second deck for a grand slam.

Throwing errors in the sixth and seventh led to another two runs. Entering Saturday, the Marlins ranked second worst in MLB with minus-17 Defensive Runs Saved and worst in MLB with minus-18 Outs Above Average. What bothered Schumaker more were the mental lapses.

“Obviously, it's very tough,” said Bethancourt, whose single in the ninth snapped a hitless streak of 29 at-bats to open the season. “Not the start I wanted. Things are not going my way, and no one can feel how frustrated I am if you haven't been in this position. I'm like [at] a loss for words. I know that's not the player I am. I might not be a superstar, but I'm not the player that I'm showing as of right now.

And I'm working, I'm getting work in the cage, I'm getting my reps defensively, and just things are not going my way. It's very frustrating for me. It's beyond embarrassing, and I just feel bad because I'm not doing things to help the team.”

However, Miami’s issues extend to the offense. The lineup had rookie Mitchell Parker on the ropes, but it mustered just a run-scoring wild pitch until a three-run ninth while down by double digits.

During this five-game skid, the Marlins are 4-for-33 with a .368 OPS (worst in the National League) with runners in scoring position. Without Jake Burger since April 15, the club is slashing .233/.277/.330.

“Obviously we didn't start off the way that we would like to, but I think the mentality is that we have so much more baseball,” Josh Bell said. “I feel like you can look at it in two ways: You can fold or you can look at it as a challenge, knowing that our most important at-bats are in front of us, our most important games are in front of us. I think that there's so much talent in this room that it's not a matter of if -- it's a matter of when we get going. It's just really important to try to keep the positivity up even when it's not looking good.

“I've had some struggles in my career for sure. I know that's part of the game. I know that injuries play a huge part. Obviously, our offense isn't doing what it needs to for us to scratch runs across. We've got to get more balls in the air. We've got to hit better with runners in scoring position. We've got to give our starters some run support, because it seems like they've been pitching their tails off, especially as of late. We're in games now. We just have to do what we need to do.”