'It sped up on him': Muñoz can't limit damage in rough 4th

NEW YORK -- By virtue of the state of the Marlins after the Trade Deadline, the club's youth will have ample opportunity to get its feet wet at the Major League level down the stretch. At the forefront of this crew is right-hander Roddery Muñoz, who has nestled into the rotation with the likes of Sandy Alcantara, Eury Pérez and Jesús Luzardo (and even more) sidelined due to injury.

Entering Friday night’s opener at Citi Field, Muñoz had been searching for general consistency over his first 15 appearances in the big leagues -- except against the Mets, whom he’d allowed just one run against in two starts (11 innings). And even in a young career, the third start against a familiar lineup -- one stocked with All-Stars and MVP candidates -- is an important litmus test.

“I know he’s faced them a couple times, but really good teams adjust,” manager Skip Schumaker said before the game. “So it’s kind of that cat-and-mouse game. I’m guessing J.D. Martinez, [Francisco] Lindor and some really good hitters over there are talking about how to make adjustments. And that's the thing you got to combat, I think you find out exactly who you are as a pitcher … facing the same lineup over and over again.”

It might be easier to call Friday night’s test inconclusive for Muñoz. The 24-year-old starter made it through just 3 1/3 innings in the Marlins’ 7-3 loss to New York, dealing with traffic for much of his evening before it unraveled in the fourth frame.

Muñoz’s exercise in navigating trouble started early in the first inning, after his own throwing error on a chopped ground ball allowed Brandon Nimmo to reach and get to second. Martinez followed it up by hooking a down-and-away slider into left field to open the scoring, a quick punishment for an unforced mistake. However, Muñoz was able to get Pete Alonso to chase a slider in the other batter’s box to limit the damage.

Over the next couple of innings, the electric stuff that has the Marlins eyeing Muñoz's potential remained, forcing soft contact and producing whiffs to settle in -- especially in the third. After a leadoff single, Muñoz struck out Nimmo, Martinez and Alonso in a row using his cutter and slider -- two pitches that combined to produce eight swings and misses.

“Everything was going well through the whole game, until that fourth inning when that situation happened,” Muñoz said through translator Luis Dorante Jr. “I was feeling great with a lot of confidence. [I thought] that I was going to throw six, seven innings.”

But after a walk to Francisco Alvarez with one out, Muñoz hung a slider to Jeff McNeil that the left-hander hooked over the right-field fence. Following another walk to the next batter, Harrison Bader, Lindor pulled a ground ball down the right-field line for a triple, turning Miami’s one-run lead into a two-run deficit in an instant.

“The fourth inning kind of felt like it sped up on him a little bit: A good lineup took advantage of it,” Schumaker said. “He threw the slider for strikes, but at times [it] wasn’t great, honestly, kind of spun up there, and they took advantage of it.”

Per Statcast, the Mets made contact with 100 percent of Muñoz’s sliders that they swung at in the zone. His exit -- his line finished with five runs allowed (four earned) on five hits, with three walks and five strikeouts -- was exacerbated by George Soriano hitting the first batter he faced out of the bullpen, then allowing a three-run blast to Nimmo.

Jake Burger hit another solo blast in the fifth inning to respond -- his seventh homer in his past eight games, tied for the most over that span in franchise history with Giancarlo Stanton in 2017 -- but Miami was unable to string together much of anything against Sean Manaea and the New York bullpen. On the flipside, Muñoz’s truncated start ensured that Miami’s bullpen had to cover the final 4 2/3 innings in the loss, an impact that the Marlins could feel with their next off-day not until Thursday.

“[Muñoz] is developing, he’s doing better … but again, we need starters to get going through five [innings],” Schumaker said. “We had to use a couple guys with multiple innings tonight, and that’s OK, but it will catch up with you later in a series.

“There’s a lot of teaching moments, he doesn’t want to come out in the fourth inning -- I totally get it. It’s a lot of learning, a lot of developing, and he’s going to be fine.”