Coming off a two game winning streak, the Miami Marlins are now on a three game losing streak after a 4-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday. Miami is now five games under .500 and continues to slip further back in the standings each day. With the trade deadline a mere ten days away, it’s becoming increasingly likely that the Marlins play the roll of sellers heading up to that day.
Ricky Nolasco looked shaky at times in this start but was dominant at other points while putting together a mediocre six inning effort. The Pirates put across all four of their runs against Nolasco who fell to 8-8 on the year. In all, the right-hander struck out seven, the most strikeouts in a game for Nolasco this season. Mike Dunn tossed a scoreless inning of relief in the seventh before Edward Mujica struck out the side in the eighth.
Jose Reyes got the game started the right way with a leadoff home run, his first as a Marlin. It was one of three hits on the day for the Marlins’ shortstop who is in the middle of an eight game hitting streak. Unfortunately for Reyes and the Marlins, one of his outs came in the ninth on a strikeout with a runner on third and one out. It continued a season long issue for Miami of delivering a runner home who is in scoring position. As a team, Miami was 0-8 in such positions in Friday’s game.
The Marlins will look to snap their losing streak on Saturday against their former mate, A.J. Burnett. The scheduled starter for Miami is Carlos Zambrano.
About Larry Walansky
