MIAMI -- Surrendering two-out hits is troublesome for any Major League pitcher. Sunday was no exception for right-hander Dan Straily and the Marlins.
After finishing the month of June with a 14-14 record, the Marlins' best month of the season, Straily looked to start off July in the win column. But for Straily, three consecutive early innings of two-out hits proved to be the difference as the Marlins fell in their series finale with the Mets, 5-2, at Marlins Park.
"Early on, they nicked us up, but I thought Dan was pretty good, though," Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. "Seven innings, three runs. Pretty much did his job."
Straily, in his first start since being suspended five games for hitting Giants catcher Buster Posey with a pitch, settled into a groove and finished with a solid line of seven innings, five hits and seven strikeouts.
"Baseball happened," Straily said of the early two-out RBI hits. "I wasn't able to get through the inning without giving up a run a couple of times there. It's frustrating and obviously I was trying to get an out each time and wasn't able to do that each time."
Outfielder Cameron Maybin connected on his first home run of the season, a solo shot that sneaked over the wall in straightaway center field in the eighth. But the Marlins weren't able to rally and complete a three-game sweep. Instead, they settled for taking two of three.
"Obviously, for the series, you would have liked to have taken this one, too," Mattingly said. "Once you get two ... I don't think we've swept anybody yet, but that would have been nice to be able to do that today."

After a one-two-three first, Straily was victimized by two-out hits. Kevin Plawecki's double in the second put the Mets on the board, scoring Todd Frazier. In the third, after falling behind in the count, Asdrubal Cabrera crushed a 3-1 fastball into the upper deck for a home run to right. Even Matz made Straily pay for two-out baserunners, driving home Frazier on a single for the Mets' third run.
"I just had kind of a lack of fastball command at times today," Straily said. "We were able to make adjustments and kind of throw some more offspeed [pitches] to get through the outing. We're starting pitchers, so it's not like we have to have the same stuff available to us every fifth day, so it's just a matter of navigating through each day and taking what we had available. Later in the game, I kind of used the fastball more sparingly and attacked more with offspeed [pitches]."
Even the Mets' fourth run of the game came with two outs, as reliever Tayron Guerrero surrendered a double to Frazier, landing off the glove of Lewis Brinson and allowing Cabrera, who had led off the inning with a walk, to score from first.

Shortstop Miguel Rojas provided Miami's only spark offensively with his booming double to the left-center-field wall in the bottom of the fourth frame. Rojas promptly stole third and eventually scampered his way home for the Marlins' first run of the day on a two-out safety squeeze by Straily, misplayed off the mound by Matz.
The steal of third was Rojas' second of the day, his first game with multiple stolen bases in his career.

The Marlins scattered just three hits off Matz, who was taken out after striking out Justin Bour for the first out in the bottom of the sixth, his sixth strikeout.
In the bottom of the seventh, after a two-out walk by Starlin Castro out of the leadoff spot, Brian Anderson did his best to replicate his game-tying home run from Saturday's contest and tie the game at three, scorching a Seth Lugo hanging curveball deep to straightaway left. But Michael Conforto, with his back against the wall, was able to haul it in.

The lineout was registered at 102.5 mph, with a distance of 365 feet, according to Statcast™. It had a hit probability of 65 percent.
Leading off the same inning, JT Riddle lined out to Conforto.
"Right there was a spot," Mattingly said. "[Anderson] thought he got them again. Gets that breaking ball. Riddle lines out to left. I thought that was a hit when it left the bat."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
In the second frame, after walks to Brinson and Straily, with Rojas reaching on an error, Castro stepped in with the bases loaded, poised to put the Marlins on the board early. Matz stuck to his offspeed pitches, forcing a swing-and-miss on a changeup early in the count and then sneaking a 2-2 curveball past the Marlins second baseman for the third out of the inning.

A stagnant Marlins offense that was only able to nudge across two runs, missed out on a prime opportunity to disallow Matz from getting into a rhythm. Besides Rojas' manufactured run in the fourth, Miami hitters failed to reach scoring position again until the eighth.
"He was really good," Maybin said about Matz. "He had great life on his fastball, he did a good job of working fast and keeping us off balance. He worked to his tempo … sometimes you just gotta tip your hat when a guy goes out there and pitches the way he did."
SOUND SMART
Maybin's eighth-inning solo blast put an end to his 78-game home run drought. His homerless streak extended back to September 26th of last season when Maybin, then with the Astros, homered off Yohander Mendez of the Rangers.
HE SAID IT
"Being real honest, I was not seeing the ball well off [Matz] at all and I figured that was my only chance to get Miggy home there was to push a bunt down the first-base line. It took an error but I got it down and got a run scored. It was the best chance I had to push the run across and that was it." -- Straily, on his bunt that scored Rojas and was ruled an error on Matz
UP NEXT
Wei-Yin Chen takes the ball for the Marlins in Game 1 of their three-game series with the cross-state Rays on Monday at 7:10 p.m. ET at Marlins Park. Chen will look to continue his success at home in 2018, as the lefty has posted an ERA of just 2.30 in five Miami starts this season.