Pablo Lopez sets career high in strikeouts, but Marlins drop series opener vs Brewers

Pablo Lopez’s tremendous start to the 2022 season reached another new height on Friday. The right-handed pitcher was masterful on the mound and set a new career-high with 11 strikeouts over seven innings.

The Miami Marlins couldn’t capitalize on their pitcher’s gem as they struggled against the ace in the opposing dugout.

Lopez went pitch for pitch, inning for inning with the Milwaukee Brewers’ Corbin Burnes, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, but the Marlins gave up the go-ahead run in the ninth as Miami dropped its series opener against the Milwaukee Brewers 2-1 at loanDepot park. Miami is now 14-18 and has now lost 11 one-run games. Milwaukee is 21-12.

“Good pitching stops hitting,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said.

That was certainly the case Friday.

Both Lopez and Burnes gave up just one run — Lopez a solo home run to Kolten Wong in the first, Burnes a solo home run to Jesus Aguilar in the third — while going seven innings.

“We knew we were facing the guy that won the Cy Young last year. We all know who he is,” said Lopez, who through games played Friday leads MLB with a 1.05 ERA. “We all know how he pitches, how he competes. It’s one of those things that you do want to match that, but at the same time that the moment we got a run on the board [to tie the game 1-1], I know that it’s one of the few that we might get on a night like this, so that just motivates me to go out there and make my pitches.”

With the game tied heading to the ninth, the Brewers struck and took the lead for good. They loaded the bases against left-handed pitcher Tanner Scott on a Christian Yelich single, Luis Urias hit-by-pitch and Tyrone Taylor pinch-hit single before an out was recorded.

Mattingly then pulled Scott for Anthony Bender.

Bender struck out Hunter Renfroe on three pitches for the first out before issuing a four-pitch walk to Jace Peterson to force in the go-ahead run. He then struck out Lorenzo Cain and got Victor Caratini to ground out to first to limit the damage to one run.

But Milwaukee’s Josh Hader held the Marlins’ offense in check in the ninth, getting Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Jesus Aguilar to ground out before Jorge Soler hit a flyball in foul territory that Renfroe caught to end the game and allow Hader to pick up his 13th save in as many opportunities this season.

It spoiled Lopez’s latest gem.

The 26-year-old-right gave up his lone run two pitches into the night before serving up one of the starts of his career. He left an 87.6 mph cutter over the heart of the plate for Wong, who sent the pitch a projected 366 feet to right field.

After that? Lopez was nearly untouchable. Just three of the remaining 24 Brewers batters Lopez faced reached base — Urias on a Brian Anderson two-out fielding error in the first, Cain on a two-out double in the second and Renfroe on a two-out single in the seventh.

Lopez recorded at least one strikeout in six of the seven innings he pitched. He struck out the top of the Brewers’ lineup — Wong, Willy Adames and Yelich — in order in the third and recorded multiple strikeouts in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.

Nine of Lopez’s 11 strikeouts came on his changeup, the pitch that is now responsible for 26 of his 46 strikeouts so far this season.

“I feel really good with my changeup,” Lopez said. “Between this start and my last start, I tried to work on making sure that the feel of the changeup was always there. Sometimes I run into changeups that are running instead of sinking or fading. The focus today was making sure the changeup was with that drop and fading action. I stayed within myself with the rhythm, the tempo, the break of my hands with my legs to make sure the action I was seeking was there.”

Brian Anderson returns, Joey Wendle to IL

Some good news and some bad news on the Marlins injury front.

The good: Anderson is back from his brief stint on the injured list for undisclosed reasons.

The bad: Joey Wendle is on the 10-day IL with a right hamstring strain.

Anderson started at third base on Friday after being off the active roster for a week. While the Marlins publicly aren’t defining what caused the IL stint, the fact that he was able to return in fewer than 10 days and his circumstances while sidelined make it clear it was related to COVID-19. The COVID-19 related IL also does not have a minimum amount of time a player must be sidelined before returning.

Anderson said he was quarantined in his San Diego hotel room before rejoining the team in Phoenix on Tuesday.

“It was the same thing as the quarantine in 2020,” Anderson said. “Throwing against a pillow. Stuff like that. Just trying to keep mentally engaged and stay with the team as much as I can mentally. And then physically, do prison workout —push ups, sit ups, stuff like that.”

He took ground balls and hit pregame Tuesday and Wednesday at Chase Field before flying back to South Florida to play in a rehab game with the Single A Jupiter Hammerheads on Thursday.

“I didn’t really need a day off [Thursday] after already having a couple,” Anderson said, “so just being able to see some live pitching, get back in the field, I felt good.”

Wendle left the Marlins’ win over the Diamondbacks on Wednesday when his hamstring tightened up on him. It’s the same hamstring that forced Wendle to miss games last homestand.

“The fact that it’s the same leg,” Mattingly said, ‘it’s like, ‘OK, let’s get rid of this.’”

Another factor: The Marlins are playing with a three-man bench. If Wendle stayed on the active roster but couldn’t play, it would have left Mattingly with just two position players not in the starting lineup at his disposal.

“It’s almost impossible to play with a two-man [bench],” Mattingly said. “You can do it, but it’s not conducive to really making any kind of good decisions.”

Open roof

For the first time this season, the Marlins opened loanDepot park’s retractable roof for a game.

The Marlins only had the roof open twice last season: April 5 and 6, 2021, against the St. Louis Cardinals.