Three home runs allowed doom Marlins as Rangers take series. Takeaways from the loss

The Miami Marlins were in a good spot early Saturday against the Texas Rangers. They jumped out to an early five-run, poised to potentially even the series against one of the top teams in baseball.

“I feel like [at] 5-0, we should be able to hold that lead, honestly,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said.

Alas, they did not.

The Rangers belted out three home runs over a two-inning span to take the lead and never look back as the Marlins fell 9-8 at Globe Life Field.

Miami falls to 58-54, the first time it has only been four games over .500 since June 4, and remains just on the outside looking in of a wild card spot. The Rangers improve to 65-46.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

Free passes and long balls do Marlins in

Despite the team seeing positives in spots out of both George Soriano and Ryan Weathers, the Marlins’ primary pitchers against the Rangers on Saturday both gave up costly home runs.

Soriano, making his first career MLB start, cruised through his first three innings before the Rangers capitalized in the fourth.

A 10-pitch at-bat against Adolis Garcia ended in a walk. Josh Jung ambushed a first-pitch slider for a single to put runners on the corners. And then Robbie Grossman sent an elevated slider on a 1-2 count a projected 414 feet to right-center to cut Miami’s lead to 5-2.

“They took advantage of the situation,” Soriano said. “And then I missed one pitch and you saw what happened.”

After Steven Okert finished the fourth inning by retiring all three batters he faced, Schumaker turned to Weathers, who the team acquired from the San Diego Padres on Tuesday.

Texas tagged him for four runs in the fifth — Corey Seager and Jung each hit two-run homers, Seager’s following a Marcus Semien double and Jung’s coming after a Garcia walk — to put Miami behind 7-5. Weathers rebounded after that, but still gave up two more runs on three more hits and three more walks while pitched 3 2/3 total innings. He struck out five and threw 95 pitches (52 strikes)

“The first inning was kind of sporadic,” Weathers said. “I think just a lot of adrenaline. The first time out of the bullpen in a little bit. [After that], I felt like the pitches started getting better. ... Just gotta execute.”

Were there other bullpen options?

The Marlins found themselves within a run in the seventh inning, and Schumaker had left-handed pitcher Tanner Scott — one of the club’s more reliable late-inning relievers — warming in the bullpen.

Was he an option to pitch at that point?

Not in that situation, Schumaker said.

“Tanner was going to go in for a tie game [or with a lead]. That was it,” Schumaker said. “You don’t do that down runs. If we tied it up, Tanner was going to go in. If we keep going every day with these guys, they’re going to be gassed. They’re already a little bit gassed, a couple guys. It takes a toll on those guys.”

Scott, who has a 2.96 ERA and is striking out almost 35 percent of the batters he has faced this season, has already made 51 appearances this season, tied for the third most in MLB. He’s 11 innings shy of matching his single-season career-high of 62 2/3 innings pitched, set last season.

So with that, Weathers weathered through his outing.

“We were going to have to be covered by somebody,” Schumaker said. “He was going to have to go multiple innings. We couldn’t just mix and match and blow everybody out and then everybody be down [Sunday]. Somebody had to go multiple innings, and Ryan was the guy.”

Despite loss, offense shows potential

Even with the loss, the offense provided a showcase of its potential. Miami jumped out to a 5-0 lead by stringing together four hits in the third innings and then another three (plus a sacrifice bunt and sacrifice fly) in the fourth inning.

After the Marlins fell behind, Nick Fortes and Jake Burger each hit home runs late — Fortes in the sixth, Burger in the ninth — to cut Miami’s deficit to one each time.

Luis Arraez had two hits, including an RBI double in the fourth for his 600th career hit. Joey Wendle, who was mired in an 0 for 28 slump, led off the third-inning rally with a single and had a sacrifice fly in the fourth.