MIAMI -- All season, runs have been hard to come by for the Marlins, the lowest scoring team in Major League Baseball.
The task of scoring was complicated even more on Wednesday night, matched against Clayton Kershaw. The Marlins scratched out just two hits in seven innings against the veteran left-hander, and the Dodgers breezed to a 9-1 win at Marlins Park.
The Marlins have dropped all five games played this season against the Dodgers, and look to avoid a three-game sweep on Thursday.
“The games with L.A., in particular, I think they're good because they kind of let you know where you're at,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “They’re one of probably three teams, maybe four, that legitimately -- if they don't win the World Series, they're going to look at it like it's a bad year.”
How on point was Kershaw?
Harold Ramirez was the Marlins’ first baserunner, lining a clean single to right field with two outs in the fifth inning. Until that point, Kershaw retired the first 14 he faced. Even putting the ball in play was problematic for Miami. All 10 of Kershaw’s strikeouts came in the first five innings, including seven in a row to start the game.
“Sometimes you just kind of get into that groove early,” Kershaw said. “We scored three runs in the top of the first, so I just want to make that hold up. You don't really care how you get the outs, as long as you're efficient with it. Tonight, I was able to get ahead, did a decent job of fastball command.”
Ramirez’s single off Kershaw, according to Statcast, had a 99.2 mph exit velocity and a .910 expected batting average (xBA).
Starlin Castro had the hardest-hit ball off Kershaw, a 107 mph groundout to short. And the only other hit Miami managed was Garrett Cooper’s two-out infield single.
The lone Marlins run came in the ninth inning on Curtis Granderson’s pinch-hit home run to right of Yimi Garcia. It was Granderson’s 11th homer of the season, and third pinch-hit homer.
In the first two games, the Dodgers have outscored the Marlins, 24-2. Miami is the lowest-scoring team in the Majors with 430 runs.
The Marlins (44-75) are being seriously tested in the homestand. Prior to facing the Dodgers, Miami split four games with the National League East-leading Braves.
“You always try to put up stuff from the guys that are doing very well, whether it's offense or pitching, defensively,” Granderson said. “Whatever it happens to be, and that is a team that happens to be doing very well. Taking a couple of things here and there -- what they're trying to do in different situations, how they do in situational hitting and getting themselves out of jams. It's definitely something you can take away from. But it's them and a couple of teams right now that are playing very well.”
Facing the likes of Kershaw is a great test for some of Miami’s young players, like rookie second baseman Isan Diaz, who was called up earlier in the month. Diaz went hitless in four at-bats with two strikeouts.
“It lets him know where he's at,” Mattingly said. “We feel like Isan is going to be a good hitter. I believe that. He's got to deal with these guys. It's daily. It's [Walker] Buehler tomorrow. It's not getting any easier.”
Once again, the Dodgers relied on the long ball to build a big lead against Marlins right-hander Elieser Hernandez, who was charged with six runs in six innings.
With two outs in the first inning, Justin Turner hit a solo home run. Two batters later, Corey Seager crushed a two-run shot. Edwin Rios, who played at Florida International University in Miami, connected on a pair of home runs, the first two of his MLB career.
“I give a lot of credit to them,” said Hernandez, who struck out seven, through an interpreter. “They did a great job. Their lineup is strong, and all the mistakes I made, I paid for them.”
The Marlins, meanwhile, struggled to simply make contact off Kershaw. The veteran left-hander was one strike away from tying an MLB record of eight straight strikeouts to begin a game. But on an 0-2 offering, Lewis Brinson grounded out to short. The MLB mark of eight straight K's to begin a game has been done twice, by Jim Deshaies (1986) and Jacob deGrom (2014 vs. Marlins).
“We had a chance to go up against Atlanta recently, and these guys right now,” Granderson said. “It doesn't get any easier as you go out there and continue to play, day in, day out. You try to go out there and say, 'We know where we are. We know where we want to be.' These are some of the teams in that spot that we want to get to. How do we go ahead and get ourselves there, and try to get better each day?”