Just a ‘nightmare’ trip or something more? Kim Ng answers questions about reeling Marlins

Don Mattingly called the Miami Marlins’ latest road trip “a nightmare.” Jazz Chisholm Jr. said it was “frustrating.” Kim Ng put the worst stretch of the season in much more understated terms.

“The last 10 days or so,” the general manager said before the Marlins opened up a three-game series with the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday in Miami, “has definitely not been where we want it to be.”

The Marlins lost 8 of 9 on their 10-day road trip, including sweeps at the hands of the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays. The disastrous road trip dropped Miami into last place in the National League East, 7 1/2 games behind the first-place New York Mets, with the trade deadline less than two months away.

While the Marlins have plenty of time to vault back into contention, the trip exposed Miami’s deepest flaws and a rash of injuries are only further exacerbating them.

The Marlins averaged just three runs per game on the road trip, suffered five of their seven losses by three runs or fewer and lost multiple starting pitchers to injury.

Even Miami’s biggest strength became a weakness. The Marlins began the trip with the sixth best bullpen ERA in baseball, but their relief pitchers posted a 5.97 ERA — the sixth worst mark in MLB across those 10 days — during the nine-game trip.

It was a worst-case scenario for the Marlins.

“The bullpen has probably been one of the strongest — if not the strongest — components of our club,” Ng said. “When they go through a rough patch, everybody feels it.”

Add in a slew of injuries and a roster Ng admits was never built to be a high-scoring bunch, and Miami plays with a persistently slim margin for error.

Still, the NL East is tightly packed and the Marlins were firmly in the playoff conversation before their recent skid. For Miami to get back into contention, three things need to change.

1. The pitching staff needs to get healthy — or help.

The top three of the Marlins’ rotation is one of the best in the league. Trevor Rogers is the early frontrunner for NL Rookie of the Year. Pablo Lopez entered Tuesday with a sub-3.00 ERA. Fellow starting pitcher Sandy Alcantara is a former MLB All-Star and leading the team in innings.

On the most recent road trip: Cody Poteet started twice, but is now on the 10-day injured list with a sprained knee; fellow starting pitcher Daniel Castano got called up, but never pitched because of a shoulder impingement; and pitcher Elieser Hernandez made an impressive return from the IL, then landed right back on it with a right quad strain.

The final two spots in the rotation are still a massive question mark. Ng, however, doesn’t view the wave of injuries as anything particularly unusual — at least not yet.

“What I think we’re going through is not uncommon for what’s going on in the rest of the industry,” Ng said. “From what we saw and what we looked at, there’s definitely very middle of the pack in terms of what’s gone on, but I do think when something like this happens you need to ask yourself questions. And I think we have to try and gain an understanding of what’s happened, and why and I think we’re still going through that.”

It also doesn’t help that Sixto Sanchez has yet to pitch this year.

The starting pitcher was supposed to be a Rookie of the Year contender, but a shoulder injury and series of setbacks have kept him from pitching in live action at all this season. Ng said Sanchez’s latest setback — “a little bursitis” — is unrelated to his prior setback in spring training and Miami did get some good news Tuesday: Sanchez is now clear to throw off flat ground.

In the meantime, Ng said she’s looking outside the organization for additional pitching help.

“We have done that,” she said, “but we’re going to continue to look.”

2. The bullpen needs to return to form.

Right now, this is the simplest fix. The Marlins had an elite bullpen for the first 50 games and an awful one for the last nine.

Now Miami has a middle-of-the-pack bullpen ERA and Ng isn’t ready to panic off two bad weeks.

“We ran into a tough stretch here, but I haven’t lost confidence in them. I look at the entire body of work, which is about 60 games now,” Ng said. “I’ve erased it from my mind of what they’ve done the night before because there’s a fairly good sample size at this point as to what they are capable of.”

3. Get better offensive production.

The Marlins entered Tuesday with the fifth least productive offense in the Majors, with only three of their eight current starters posting an on-base-plus-slugging percentage of at least .750.

First baseman Jesus Aguilar, outfielder Starling Marte and Chisholm have all been good offensively, as has injured shortstop Miguel Rojas. Everyone else is performing worse than Major League average, according to adjusted OPS — not that offensive struggles were entirely unexpected.

“I never anticipated us being a real high-scoring team. I don’t think that’s how we are constructed,” Ng said. “We’ve always said that we were very pitching-centric.”

Injuries, of course, have hurt the offense, too. Rojas and Brian Anderson are still on the IL, and Marte and Chisholm only recently returned.

“Hopefully, in the next couple weeks we’ll start to see a couple guys back that’ll give us a little bit more relief that we need,” Ng said.

Marlins injury updates

Miami placed Castano on the 10-day IL on Tuesday and recalled fellow starting pitcher Braxton Garrett in his place. It’s the latest injury for an already heavily banged-up team, although several of the Marlins’ injured players are making progress.

▪ Rojas was back at loanDepot park on Tuesday to take grounders during batting practice and hit off a tee. The shortstop is getting closer to a return from a dislocated left index finger, which has already kept him out for nearly two weeks.

▪ Anderson is doing range of motion work as he gets close to beginning a hitting progression. Anderson, a third baseman and outfielder, has missed two weeks with a left shoulder subluxation.

▪ Poteet resumed light throwing Monday after he landed on the 10-day injured list with a sprained knee Friday.

▪ Jordan Holloway will make another rehab appearance Thursday for Triple A Jacksonville. The relief pitcher has missed more than two weeks with a strained groin.

▪ Nick Neidert will throw a bullpen sometime this week. The pitcher has missed nearly two weeks with biceps inflammation.

▪ Edward Cabrera will make another rehab start Friday for Low A Jupiter. The right-handed pitcher, who’s the No. 54 overall prospect in the MLB.com rankings, made his season debut Sunday after battling a nerve issue in his biceps.

▪ Jorge Guzman threw in an extended spring training game Tuesday. Guzman, who appeared in one MLB game as a relief pitcher last year, has yet to pitch in a real game this season as he battles an elbow injury.

Marlins snap skid behind Lopez

A return home did the Marlins good.

After dropping 8 of 9 on its “nightmare” road trip, Miami kicked off a six-game homestand with a 6-2 win against the Rockies in front of 4,863 back in South Florida.

“It’s good to get home, knowing that we’re going to be home for six, we’re gone, then we’re right back again,” manager Don Mattingly said. “We know that we’ve kind of gotten through that period of time and now we’ve got to get ourselves going.”

Lopez surrendered a run in the first inning, but regrouped to throw eight innings for his second win of the year.

The Marlins (26-34) scored four runs in the third inning and piled up 13 hits against starting pitcher Antonio Senzatela and three Colorado relief pitchers. Chisholm, Marte, Aguilar and outfielder Adam Duvall all collected multiple hits for Miami.

The Rockies (24-37) managed just five hits against Lopez (2-3) and the starter allowed just two earned runs while striking out eight.

The Marlins jumped on Senzatela (2-6) in the third to roll to a convincing win. After a leadoff single by utility man Jon Berti and a strikeout by Lopez, Chisholm and Marte connected for back-to-back singles to load the bases, and Aguilar drove in the game-tying run with a sacrifice fly. Outfielder Corey Dickerson then drove in two more with a triple, and Duvall sent him home to cap the four-run third and keep Miami ahead for good.

Up next

The Marlins continue a three-game series against Colorado at 7:10 p.m.

Miami has yet to announce a starter after its latest rash of starter injuries. Pitcher Austin Gomber will be on the mound for Colorado.

Garrett is an option to start Wednesday after he was called up Tuesday, Mattingly said.