DENVER -- It was bound to happen eventually.
Meyer, who was looking to become the first pitcher in Marlins history to win 10 consecutive decisions to open a season, allowed five runs (one earned) over six innings. Afterwards, he didn’t mince words when evaluating his outing.
“It was a loss,” Meyer said.
The 27-year-old Meyer surrendered a first-inning solo homer to Mickey Moniak and then nothing else until the Rockies pushed across four unearned runs to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 5-2 lead in the fifth.
Troy Johnston singled and Kyle Karros reached on second baseman Javier Sanoja’s fielding error. The 2025 Gold Glove Award-winning utility player got the start to give Xavier Edwards a rare breather.
It looked as though Meyer might escape trouble after backup catcher Brian Navarreto threw out the lead runner at third on a sacrifice-bunt attempt and Jake McCarthy grounded out to first. But Moniak struck again with a two-run triple to right-center on a sweeper at the bottom of the zone. Hunter Goodman followed by taking Meyer deep.
“He's tough,” Moniak said of Meyer. “Obviously, we knew going in, he's 9-0, good ERA, one of the best pitchers in the league up until this point. He throws about 60 percent breaking balls. It's a hard breaking ball. For us, it was just kind of tunneling him, trying to get him up. If he gets that breaking ball down, tough pitch to lay off, so just trying to set the sights up.”
Wednesday marked just the third time this season Meyer gave up multiple homers in a game, and both came on fastballs.
“The second one was a sinker,” Meyer said. “Obviously, the movement wasn't there. The location was in. The other one was away. Just a tough one.”
Due to the high altitude, an already breaking-pitch-happy Meyer threw 73.1% sliders/sweepers compared to just 14.1% fastballs.
“You've got to switch it up when you're playing here,” Meyer said. “That's just the game plan we had. Obviously, I wish I could throw more, but you've got to do what you've got to do.”
Although Meyer had thrown only 78 pitches, manager Clayton McCullough elected to take him out after six frames for two primary reasons: the club was down by three runs and because of the environment.
“It just takes a different kind of toll on your body and everything,” McCullough said. “We're certainly thinking about Max long term, and he threw the ball well, and at six innings tonight, and with where things were, that was enough.”
Could shorter leashes be more common in the future for Meyer, who has already set career highs for starts (18) and innings (103)? Due to injuries, he has never tossed more than 115 frames in a professional season (2024 between Triple-A Jacksonville and the Majors).
“We'll just kind of keep taking it outing by outing, and I think if the score, the situation would have been different, maybe we keep going,” McCullough said. “But at that point where we're already down, I didn't think expending any more of his pitches was worth it tonight.”
Meyer hadn’t been in line for a loss since May 29 -- six starts ago – when the Marlins trailed the Mets by two runs in an eventual 9-7 loss in 10 innings. In that outing, Meyer permitted a career-high-tying six runs (five earned) at Citi Field. After that game, Meyer posted a 1.78 ERA in five June starts as the Marlins went an MLB-best 20-6 in the month.
With Wednesday’s defeat, Miami dropped to 13-5 in Meyer starts, tied with National League Cy Young hopeful Cristopher Sánchez and Guardians lefty Joey Cantillo for the best team record for a pitcher (min. 18 starts).
Despite the Mile High City’s variables, Meyer still struck out five batters and walked none. He notched his sixth quality start in his past nine turns. Were there any positives he could hold onto from the outing?
“Not really,” Meyer said. “I've got to make a pitch there. I didn't make a pitch, and then all that happened in one inning. It's a tough one. Not going to take anything away from this game. Just going to throw it away and get on to the next one.”