DETROIT – Bryan De La Cruz homered, Trevor Rogers pitched five scoreless innings and the Miami Marlins beat the Detroit Tigers 2-0 on Wednesday afternoon.
Miami (13-32) has won two straight and three of four after a four-game losing streak. They shut out the Tigers on Tuesday and Wednesday to win the three-game series.
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“The pitchers have to execute, but our pitching coaches did a great job of game-planning and getting Trevor back to where he needs to be,” Marlins manager Skip Schumacher said. “That’s back-to-back shutouts and they should get a lot of the credit.”
Four relievers finished, with Tanner Scott pitching the ninth for his fifth save. Two-out singles by Javier Baez and Carson Kelly put runners on the corners, but Riley Greene struck out.
“We left 10 guys on and got shutout, so that’s pretty much the definition of missed opportunities,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said on his 50th birthday. “Some of those were with two outs, but we had leadoff guys get on and we couldn’t advance them even 90 feet.”
One day after Ryan Weathers pitched eight shutout innings, Rogers (1-6) held the Tigers scoreless for five innings. He allowed three hits and two walks while striking out six.
“I definitely needed this and, more importantly, the team needed these shutouts,” Rogers said. “We’ve struggled a little lately, but that’s a good ball team on the other side and we held them to zero runs in two of three games.”
Casey Mize (1-2) allowed two runs on two hits in six innings. Detroit (21-22) has lost four straight series and nine of the last 12 games.
“He pitched, which was nice to see,” Hinch said. “He got ambushed early, but he really settled in.”
Unlike Tuesday, where the teams needed 10 innings to score a run, the Marlins needed only 11 pitches on Wednesday. Jazz Chisholm Jr. led off the game with an infield single and De La Cruz hit his ninth homer over the center-field fence.
Mize and the Detroit bullpen didn’t allow another hit until Nick Fortes’ single with two out in the eighth, but the Tigers offense couldn’t get going.
The Tigers loaded the bases with two out in the third, but Rogers struck out Gio Urshela on three pitches and they didn’t get another runner in scoring position until the ninth.
“We knew (Urshela) was going to be really aggressive, and my best pitch to him was going to be the split(-finger),” Rogers said. “We were going to throw to him until he proved he wasn’t going to swing at it.”
UP NEXT
Marlins: Off on Thursday before starting a three-game weekend series at home against the New York Mets. Miami LHP Jesus Luzardo (0-3, 5.97) is expected to start Friday.
Tigers: Fly across the county on Thursday before starting a three-game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Detroit ace LHP Tarik Skubal (5-0, 2.02) is scheduled to pitch on Friday.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb