Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Braves rough up bullpen for six runs in 7th inning
MIAMI — Miami Marlins pitcher Jose Urena has a fan in Don Mattingly.
The Marlins manager says the Dominican righthander is fun to watch, and he certainly was in shutting out the Mets for six innings on one hit last weekend in New York.
“He’s a guy you love watching pitch because you know he’s coming at you, and he’s coming at you with power,” Mattingly said Friday before Urena faced the Braves at Marlins Park.
With injuries providing another opportunity for Urena to entrench himself, he came through with a creditable follow-up performance with another solid six innings, allowing two runs.
Mattingly couldn’t have enjoyed watching what happened after that as the wheels came off his beleaguered bullpen again in a six-run seventh inning that turned a close game into an 8-4 trouncing. The loss was Miami’s 13th in 16 games, including all four so far on this homestand.
Three relievers were roughed up in the ugly frame that included a balk by Kyle Barraclough (he walked two in one-third of an inning) and was extended with an error by third baseman Derek Dietrich that rendered three runs unearned.
Four of the runs (three earned) were charged to submariner Brad Ziegler, who had his third consecutive ineffective outing. He recorded only one out (on a sacrifice bunt).
Ziegler, who allowed one run in his first 13 appearances this season, gave up five runs without getting an out in squandering a fourrun lead May 5 at New York. He gave up a tying two-run hit Tuesday against the Cardinals that led to another loss.
The main blemish on Urena’s night was a 96-mph fastball that he grooved over the heart of the plate to Tyler Flowers, who drove it 401 feet to left-center for a two-run homer in the second.
Braves starter Mike Foltynewicz, another hardthrower, also gave up nothing but a homer in six innings, to Justin Bour (his sixth).
It was a majestic shot into the upper deck in right field, but it came with the bases empty. .
J.T. Realmuto hit a tworun homer in the seventh for Miami after the bullpen had dug a deep hole. Dietrich added his first homer in the ninth.