Phillies get just one hit in 2-0 loss to Marlins

Somebody has to lose to the Miami Marlins.

Even if you play 162 games with a single-A lineup in the big leagues, you're bound to win a few of them.

The Marlins did not test that exact theory Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park, but they did beat the Phillies, 2-0, behind a lineup that is being paid just over $6 million this season.

Lefthander Cole Hamels, who will be paid $19.5 million, took the loss, slipping to 1-4 in seven starts.

The man who accounted for the Marlins' winning run with his first big-league home run, leading off the second inning, was Marcell Ozuna, a 22-year-old rightfielder who had 47 plate appearances above the single-A level in his career before joining the Marlins Monday.

The man who shut down the Phillies was Jose Fernandez, a 20-year-old righthander from Tampa who had never pitched above single A before making the Marlins out of spring training.

For the second time in three weeks, the Phillies looked helpless against Fernandez, the 14th overall pick in the 2011 draft. Fernandez pitched six shutout innings and allowed just two hits, but was stuck with a no-decision in a 2-1 Marlins win at Miami on April 13. He was good in that game.

He was great in this one.

"I give the guy credit because he threw a good game," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said after his team was blanked for the fifth time in 18 games. "He got his breaking ball over in Florida, [but] tonight his breaking ball had more bite to it."

The Phillies had just one hit - a single by Freddy Galvis in the first inning - and one walk - Galvis in the seventh - in seven innings against Fernandez. They struck out nine times, with the three-four-five hitters (Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and Delmon Young) accounting for seven of them. Fernandez was removed after 82 pitches. The Marlins have said they will limit his pitch count and innings this season.

It was the first time since Aug. 30, 2010, at Los Angeles that the Phillies were held to one hit and only the third time ever at Citizens Bank Park.

Fernandez has the kind of stuff that should make him a big-league star, but at this point the only team he has dominated is the Phillies.

In his four other starts - two against the New York Mets, one against Cincinnati, and one against Minnesota - he is 0-2 with a 6.00 ERA, allowing 18 hits and nine walks in 18 innings.

Still, he looked a lot like a young Dwight Gooden on this night.

"He's going to be a really great pitcher for a really long time," Hamels said after a strong performance of his own. "He's going to learn how to pitch, if he doesn't already know how to. He's got a power heater, a power curveball, and a pretty good change-up. He's not afraid."

In addition to giving up the home run to Ozuna on a first-pitch fastball, Hamels surrendered a third-inning home run to Chris Valaika, a 27-year-old second baseman who had 120 big-league plate appearances and one home run before Saturday night. Valaika hit a cut fastball that was down the middle of the plate.

"The pitch [to Ozuna] was a good pitch," said Hamels (six strikeouts, four hits allowed in eight innings). "The plan that I had going against him, I felt like I was going to execute well, and he surprised me and obviously got a home run out of it. The pitch [to Valaika] was poorly executed."

The Phillies-Marlins game Sunday will begin at 2:35 p.m., an unusal starting time caused by the running of the Broad Street Run in the morning.