Defensive lapses baffling for Marlins' staunch infield

MIAMI -- Defense wasn’t supposed to be a concern for the 2026 Marlins.

Few clubs can match Miami’s middle infield of Otto Lopez, who tied for third in defensive runs saved among qualifying NL shortstops, and 2025 NL Gold Glove second base finalist Xavier Edwards. Graham Pauley tied for second among NL third basemen (min. 350 innings) with six outs above average.

Second-year catchers Agustín Ramírez and Liam Hicks had shown some improvement behind the dish, while the outfielders have yet to commit an error.

That’s what makes the first 20 games so baffling. Miami recorded a miscue in 12 of its first 15 games before playing clean defense over the next four contests. Entering Friday’s series opener, the club tied for third-worst in defensive runs saved (-7) and 13th in outs above average (2).

The Marlins added two costly errors in Friday night’s 7-5 loss to the Brewers in 10 innings at loanDepot park, giving them the second-most errors (17) in the Majors behind the Rays (19).

“We're better than what we've shown, and so I know we're going to continue to get better,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “You get to these small, little intersections during the season where you're not playing your crispest brand of baseball, you're shooting yourself in the foot some.”

After the Marlins rallied to send the game to extras, the defense hurt them in the 10th. With the bases loaded and no outs, Luis Rengifo sent a soft grounder (62.7 mph exit velocity) to a drawn-in infield. What looked like a possible escape hatch quickly turned into a series of unfortunate events.

Edwards cleanly fielded the ball and fired home, where the throw went to the right of Ramírez. Not only did he not catch the ball -- looking ahead to a potential throw over to first before securing the forceout -- but it also hit home-plate umpire Derek Thomas. A run scored on the play, and another two did so on Garrett Mitchell’s double.

“I missed the ball,” Ramírez said via interpreter Luis Dorante Jr. “[I was already looking ahead]. That's pretty much what happened there.”

Shaky defense also hurt the Marlins in a three-run fourth inning.

Right-hander Janson Junk loaded the bases with one out on a close check-swing walk, a single and a hit-by-pitch. Following a mound visit, Miami drew its infield in.

Mitchell chopped a pitch (52.8 mph exit velocity) to the right side of the infield where Junk, Norby and Edwards converged on the ball. Junk would move out of the way while Norby scurried back to first but couldn’t find the base on Edwards’ throw. Mitchell showcased elite sprint speed (30.4 ft/sec), making execution of the play even more difficult.

Norby, who had not played first base in his professional career until this spring, entered Friday with -1 DRS, 0 OAA and two errors in 109 innings. He converted a nifty 3-4 double play in the first, but plays like the one in the fourth expose less experience at the position.

“In the moment, I thought maybe I couldn't get it, maybe it would have just tipped off the glove,” Junk said. “But maybe I could have. Maybe I should have tried a little bit harder to maybe take a better angle and be able to run it over. I thought it was just one of those kind of perfectly placed ground balls that just caught everybody in between, and it was just unfortunate.”

The following batter, Greg Jones, sharply sent a grounder to short. Instead of throwing home to cut down a run, Lopez got the forceout at second, then spun to first attempting an inning-ending double play. His throw, however, was too high and permitted another run.

Jones later broke for second for the Brewers, who pace the Majors with 30 steals. Ramírez attempted a back-pick of the lead runner at third, but Pauley was still breaking in to protect against a possible safety squeeze. The throw sailed into left to score the inning’s third run.

“For us, just play cleaner from start to finish in games to give ourselves more shots,” McCullough said. “We have the personnel that's capable of doing that. There were just some plays there tonight that we certainly didn't execute well on and were able to extend innings for them, or led to some runs. Not pretty at times, but I have a lot of confidence that this group will keep plugging along and get this cleaned up as we go.”