ATLANTA -- With a spiraling May drawing to a close, one Marlins rally attempt epitomized the month’s struggles in Sunday afternoon’s 6-3 loss to the Braves at Truist Park.

Trailing 4-1 in the fifth, Willians Astudillo and Nick Fortes singled to open the inning. With Jon Berti stepping to the plate against tough lefty Max Fried, Miami had a chance to chip away at the deficit.

These are the facts:
• Lead runner Astudillo isn’t fast, with a sprint speed of just 24.2 ft/sec (27 ft/sec is MLB average) in 2021.
• Fried is the two-time reigning National League Gold Glove winner at pitcher.
• Berti entered with three career sacrifice bunts and one hit.
• The Marlins are one of four teams without a sac bunt this season, along with the Braves, Dodgers and Giants.

Manager Don Mattingly said there was no thought to bunt in that situation. Berti struck out swinging and so did Jazz Chisholm Jr., who played for the first time in a week. Following a Jorge Soler walk to load the bases, Garrett Cooper grounded out to Fried.

Atlanta responded with two runs in the bottom of the frame to extend its lead to 6-1.

“We're trying to move runners, we're not trying to not do it,” Mattingly said. “But I think you are who you are. You’re built for power. We've got a bunch of guys that you feel like are going to hit the ball in the seats and don't really run. [Avisaíl García] runs a little bit, but you get to Coop, and [Jesús Aguilar] and [Soler] don't run. There's a number of guys that just don't run, and so you kind of are what you are.”

All three Miami runs in the series finale came courtesy of Soler’s first multi-homer game of the season. He went deep off Fried in the first and then went yard again in the seventh against righty Jackson Stephens.

One of the organization’s two marquee free-agent signings, Soler has bounced back after a slow start (a .587 OPS in April). In May, he is 21-for-83 (.253) with three doubles, nine homers, 19 RBIs and a .948 OPS. His 11 taters on the season are tied for fifth most in the NL. Soler became the first Marlin with 10-plus homers through the first 45 team games of a season since Giancarlo Stanton (May 7), Marcell Ozuna (May 8) and Justin Bour (May 19) all did so in 2017.

Prior to Friday’s series opener, Soler got extra work in to focus on his location at home plate. He wanted to reduce the movement of his hands and have better timing with the ball.

“I will say probably the last 15 games approximately, I'm just making better contact,” Soler said via an interpreter. “I see the baseball a little better and [I’m] just making good contact.”

But outside of Soler, the Marlins couldn’t scratch runs across. Four guys went hitless, including Berti and Chisholm at the top of the lineup.

If one were to look at Miami’s overall numbers compared to the rest of MLB, they are respectable:
• Ninth in BABIP (.297)
• 10th-most strikeouts (406)
• 13th in OPS (.704)
• 16th in homers (46)
• 17th in walks (143)
• 23rd in runs (183)

The issue lies in inconsistency and the lack of timely hitting. The club ranks 22nd in OPS with runners in scoring position (.673), batting 1-for-7 and stranding eight men on Sunday. The lineup has scored three runs or fewer in 23 of 45 games (51%), going 4-19 in those ballgames.

Miami is 7-18 in May after a 12-8 April. It has won consecutive games just once this month; there are two games remaining. These offensive challenges aren’t new, but they have caught up with the squad.

“I know some guys got off to a slow start, but I just try to keep them confident,” hitting coach Marcus Thames told a small group of reporters last weekend. “They have a baseball card that they can look at and trust that track record, so guys are having good at-bats, hitting balls hard.

“Soler is one of the guys that I know his numbers on the scoreboard probably don't look that good, but overall, he's been hitting the baseball extremely hard and right at people. So for me, I don't want him to get away from that. Continue to do that.”