Miami Marlins fall to Chicago Cubs 2-4 as Mark Buehrle allows four runs - MLB Update
Starter Mark Buehrle leaks four runs in five innings as the Miami Marlins are defeated 2-4 by the Chicago Cubs on July 19, 2012 at Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illinois in the third game of the three match series.
With the offence remaining quiet and the pitchers allowing runs, Marlins failed to counter the resurgent Cubs. For first four innings, they were scoreless.
Meanwhile, Cubs’ starter Paul Maholm was impeccable in eight innings. He provided hardly any opportunity to batters to draw hits out of his throws. The sole run that he gave up came off in the top of the sixth. However, it was of little help to Miami as
they still trailed by a reasonable number of runs.
What betrayed the Marlins the most in the game was their starter Buehrle. While he was solid by and large, four runs that he leaked in one inning became the undoing of the whole team.
His downfall started when he was struck for a home-run as afterwards his confidence never came back. He failed to restrain his nerves and return to normalcy. The state of his mind was rightly exploited by the Cubs as they immediately added number of runs
and posted substantial lead.
Buehrle confesses that he was far from his best on Thursday.
"It seemed like I had nothing working," Buehrle said. "Changeup, couldn't throw that for a strike. I think I threw one good one the whole day."
Meanwhile, Marlins’ manager Ozzie Guillen can take heart from the fact that relievers were relatively improved. All the relief pitchers that followed their starter were scoreless. However, their effort was not supplemented by the offence as hitters struggled
to accumulate enough number of runs from the other end.
In the last game, Marlins failed to make the most of the run-scoring opportunities, despite the fact their batters connected reasonable number of hits. Similarly on Thursday, they did not capitalise on their hits.
The series has come to an end. As Marlins' offence remained largely quiet, they will be hoping Jose Reyes and Hanley Ramirez can step up more often in their upcoming games.
Unless, the Marlins get their batters to show some consistently, they cannot stop the decline from ruining their quest in the season. One will hope that they begin winning more games as they head towards a crucial part of the regular season.
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