The Miami Marlins were shutout by the Atlanta Braves, headlined by seven glorious shutout innings by starter Charlie Morton. As will be written on the tombstone of the 2021 Marlins, they were beaten, emasculated, neutered, embarrassed, slaughtered, KO’d, humiliated, clobbered and killed by a lack of any offense whatsoever, which has launched them straight to last place in the NL East.
Game Recap
Miami’s home team chose to go with an opener in the form of typical reliever Anthony Bass starting the game. He was an omen of things to come as he gave up a run in the first inning on a Freddie Freeman solo home run. His replacement, Shawn Morimando, pitched well, surrendering no runs across five scoreless frames. But alas, it was all in vain as the Marlins had no luck at the plate. Across all nine innings, they were able to knock just two hits.
The Marlins’ pitchers following Morimando could not follow up his performance as Anthony Bender, Steven Okert and Zach Pop gave up four combined runs, sealing their fate. Braves reliever Jesse Chavez struck out both Adam Duvall and Miguel Rojas in the bottom of the ninth and wrapped up a rather easy win. With the win, the Braves improve to 43-44, and still have a chance to get above .500 before the “first half” concludes.
“Going into the break, trying to finish strong,” Riley said. “It’s been a grind for sure. Things are starting to fall our way.”
Armageddon
This season, Miami has received disappointing results from their offense and it shows as they are deep in the cellar of the NL East, far behind the division leader Mets. Armageddon is far from on the horizon as it’s happening right now and Miami fans are watching it happen. Despite constant good pitching from their arms, their bats have been as cold as New York City in ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ and at the moment, their fate seems sealed. Last place, barring drastic changes and somewhat of a miracle, will be where the Marlins fall if this dead offense continues.
What’s Next?
Miami will continue their three-game set against Atlanta on Saturday with the Marlins starting Trevor Rogers, their best pitcher of the year. The Braves will go with lefty Max Fried, with the action kicking off at 4:10 PM EST.