Miami’s rough Grapefruit League continued with a 4-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Sunday.
The Marlins are now a paltry 1-7-1 this spring and the offense has been a concern thus far. While spring records and stats are insignificant in the grand scheme of things, there’s no ignoring Miami’s struggles at the plate. The Marlins are piling up strikeouts and failing in run-scoring opportunities, an issue that plagued them in recent seasons.
With some of the roster set to depart for the World Baseball Classic, this was manager Skip Schumaker‘s last chance for now to utilize a potential Opening Day roster. The starting lineup was reminiscent of one, which fans could expect to see on a regular basis. That fact makes the five hits and 13 strikeouts tallied by Miami even more eye-opening.
The pitching side of things had better news however for the Marlins, another story that mirrors last season. Trevor Rogers went three strong innings, in which he allowed no runs on one hit. Rogers struck out a pair and walked none, and has now allowed no earned runs in five spring innings. Rogers had a rough 2022, and is looking to repeat his performance from 2021.
Devin Smeltzer allowed all four runs out of Miami’s bullpen, and he now has a 7.71 E.R.A this spring. Smeltzer worked 2.2 innings, as he continues to try and land a role in the pen for Opening Day. The sample size is small thus far, but Smeltzer has gotten off to one of the worst starts out of the group competing for bullpen jobs.
Sandy Alcantara will make his last start, prior to heading to the WBC on Monday. The Marlins are traveling to take on the Tampa Bay Rays at 1:05 P.M.