Phillies fall to the Marlins, 7-1, as their pitching struggles and their bats remain cold

MIAMI — The Phillies’ 7-1 loss to the Marlins on Friday marked their fourth straight defeat, and it was an ugly one. Both starting pitcher Zach Eflin and first reliever Nick Nelson struggled against a Marlins lineup that shouldn’t have been giving them as much trouble as it did, and the Phillies bats were cold.

Kyle Schwarber has been batting leadoff, and has only three hits in 32 at-bats (.094). He hit a leadoff homer on opening day and has just two hits since then.

“Obviously there will be frustration, but once it’s over, it’s over with,” Schwarber said. “There’s nothing you can do about it. All you can do is keep working to be the same guy every day, and I’m not going to ride that roller coaster of emotions of breaking, slamming, pouting, all that. I’m not going to do that. Just have to keep working. Tomorrow is a new day.”

The Phillies narrowly avoided a shutout, with a Nick Castellanos solo home run in the top of the eighth inning, but they were unable to make up the rest of the deficit. They are now 3-5 on the season.

Eflin has had problems with the Marlins for the entirety of his career, and that continued Friday. In his second start of the season, the Marlins compiled six hits and four earned runs off of the right-handed starter, all in the first two innings. He didn’t allow a baserunner in the third or fourth, but gave way to Nelson after throwing 81 pitches, 49 for strikes. He walked one and had four strikeouts.

“I think I definitely could have done a better job getting ahead of guys,” said Eflin. “I felt like I just went to 2-1, 3-1. I probably could have used a little more offspeed earlier in the game. But my sinker was moving a lot, so I was trying to trust it, and I was barely missing below the zone. Umpire wasn’t budging on it.

“But I’ve got to do a better job of getting ahead of guys. It even happened in the Athletics game. That’s not really my MO; I’m a command guy. And I felt like I was in a hole the whole day. I felt like I did a good job of rebounding in the third and fourth innings, mixing in some pitches, and getting some guys out. But at the end of the day I’ve got to do a better job of getting ahead of guys, getting early outs.”

The Marlins had only seen Nelson once before Friday’s game, but made quick work of him. The right-hander entered in the fifth inning, and the Marlins promptly scored two runs in the inning that featured a single, two doubles, a triple, a walk, and a sacrifice fly. They added another run in the sixth without a hit: two walks, a hit batsman, and another sacrifice fly.

It was a stark departure from Nelson’s last outing on April 11, when he held a tough Mets lineup to one hit, one earned run, and one walk over four innings. The Phillies are planning to lean on Nelson for the first month of the season, as they try to stretch out their starters. It goes without saying that they’ll need for him to be more reliable than he was on Friday night.

Simón Muzziotti, making just his second big-league start, didn’t waste any time in making an impact. The Phillies’ 23-year-old center fielder started things off by making a terrific throw to gun down Jesús Aguilar at second base in the first inning as he tried to stretch a single. He then followed that with a hard-hit single in the third inning for his first major-league hit, and made a leaping grab at the center field wall in the bottom of the third to rob Aguilar of a sure extra-base hit. Muzziotti is just the second Phillies player in the expansion era (starting in 1961) to collect his first career hit in the same game in which he recorded an outfield assist. The other was Danny Cater on April 17, 1964, against the Cubs.

Phillies manager Joe Girardi said before Friday’s game that center fielder Odúbel Herrera is unlikely to join the team in Denver for its three-game series that starts Monday. With Matt Vierling 1-for-16 to start the season, Muzziotti might see some more playing time in center field.

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The Phillies didn’t capitalize on their opportunities with runners in scoring position on Thursday night, but they did collect 11 hits in that game. On Friday night, they only had eight hits. There’s no doubt that Girardi choosing to play catcher Garrett Stubbs over J.T. Realmuto played into that hit total — Realmuto is the Phillies’ best hitter right now, and went 4-for-4 on Thursday night — but, of course, the offense shouldn’t rest on him. The Phillies went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

“We’ve just got to do better, plain and simple,” Schwarber said. “We were putting together some good at-bats, but whenever we get guys on, we’re not capitalizing on getting those guys in. As a whole, that’s our goal, to be able to do that. It’s Game 8. Glad that we can point out some weaknesses and start working on them. It is what it is. And I don’t think you’re going to look at anyone in this clubhouse and see anyone panicking.

“It’s a long season. But obviously there’s things that I need to work on, and the team needs to be better at. And we’re going to be better, moving forward.”