Miami's had its own bumps — Kyle Stowers landed on the IL with a hamstring strain the same day this one was played, and the pitching staff is already without Max Meyer, Andrew Nardi, Robby Snelling and more. But the Marlins clawed back from a brutal July skid to stay squarely in the wild-card conversation, and they came in having won 2 straight. Otto Lopez has been the engine at the top of the order all year, hitting well over .300 and setting the table.
The form card tells the real story here. Miami won 2 straight and had taken 2 of the first 3 in its set against the Angels, while Pittsburgh lost its last game and had dropped 2 straight to Milwaukee, taking just 1 of the first 3 against the Mets in its most recent set. One club was trending up, the other very much down, and Tuesday just piled onto that.
Both injury reports are ugly in different ways. Pittsburgh's missing impact talent up and down the roster — Cruz's power bat, Griffin's future at short, Keller's arm in the rotation — while Miami's issue is depth on the mound, with multiple relievers and starters already shelved before you even get to Stowers' fresh hamstring strain. Neither team walked into this one at full strength, which made the pitching matchup even more of the whole ballgame.
And Pérez delivered on that. He tossed 7 scoreless, Esteury Ruiz took Skenes deep for a solo shot in the 3rd, and a throwing error by Pirates shortstop Jacob Gonzalez let Miami tack on an unearned run in the 5th. Pete Fairbanks slammed the door for his 18th save, and Pittsburgh's offense never got anything going, managing just 4 hits in a shutout loss that summed up exactly the kind of stretch this team is in.