MIAMI- With two outs in the eighth inning of Wednesday’s rubber match between the visiting Chicago Cubs and Marlins, Kyle Tucker stepped up with Matt Shaw standing 180 feet away from home in a 1-1 ballgame. Up to that point in the ballgame, the three-time All-Star and first-year Cub was responsible for essentially all of Chicago’s offense. Tucker deposited his second first-inning homer in as many days and added another hit two innings later with a 107.2 mph single. Instead of putting Tucker on with first base open, Marlins manager Clayton McCullough put trust in one of his best relief arms, Anthony Bender.

When asked postgame if he was considering pitching around Tucker, McCullough answered, “Anthony has the weapons to get him out. I was confident with Anthony going into that at-bat with his stuff.”

McCullough had good reason to believe in his guy, as Bender had been as good as any Marlins arm in crucial situations this season. In 32 at-bats in “high leverage” innings entering Sunday’s game, opposing hitters slashed a measly .188/.278/.281. The five-year veteran even got Tucker in a favorable 1-2 count, but on pitch four, disaster struck for the Fish.

Tucker poked a backdoor sweeper to left field, moving Shaw to third, where it looked like he’d be staying… if not for Kyle Stowers misplaying the ball in left.

 

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Shaw ended up scoring with ease as the ball trickled away from Miami’s most valuable player, putting Chicago up 2-1, where the score would stay until the final out as Miami’s bats continued to flounder.

“Got maybe a little too quick with it, with the transfer…the timing of some things weren’t advantageous,” added McCullough. “But Kyle has made so many good plays out there and over the course of the season for us”.

Offensively, following Stowers’ single in the third — which extended his hit streak to nine games — Miami did not record a hit in the final six frames after tallying six just over one time through the order, as Cubs starter Cade Horton and a trio of relievers dominated. The Marlins’ only run came in the first, with Connor Norby legging out a sharply-hit infield single to plate Agustin Ramirez.

Lost in the fray was the man opposite of Gibson, Max Meyer.

For the first time since his incredible 14-strikeout performance against Cincinnati exactly a month ago, Meyer delivered a quality start.

The 26-year-old’s outing started on the shakier side, with Tucker’s aforementioned long ball. Showcasing his level-headedness, though, Meyer sat down three of the next four Cubs he faced, putting him back on track to deliver a much-needed impact start.

“I was just trying to get some outs. I didn’t want anything to get out of control, and I had to just continue to execute pitches and stay on the game plan, and just because he hit one out, I wasn’t going to waver from trying to finish my pitches.”

After cruising for the better part of five innings, Meyer went out for his sixth inning of work. Seiya Suzuki led off the inning with a tough-luck dribbler down the third base line, a theme that Meyer had dealt in the later innings of his starts.

Today, though, the baseball Gods were on his side. One batter later, as “PCA” chants rang throughout loanDepot park from a vocal Cubs crowd, MVP candidate Pete Crow-Armstrong roped a 93.5 mph Meyer changeup directly at Eric Wagaman at first base, leading to the unassisted double play.

 

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Meyer concluded his outing one batter later via a Michael Busch groundout. Postgame, Meyer joked with the media that, “It’s a breath of fresh air since usually it happens with a chopper, as you’ve seen it happen with our starters. It felt like once I had that dribbler in my mind, I stopped thinking about that and told myself I would get this guy out and, alas, it was a double play right to him. It was really refreshing, it kind of made me say, ‘baseball is actually fun'”.

Meyer’s effectiveness on Wednesday lays in his arsenal, as the third-year starter utilized all five of his pitches at least 12 times.

“He was able to stick some fastballs in there [at] various times. And maybe they’re looking for the slider, which we all know is a really great pitch for him, and also the use of his changeup today. So Max, outside of the Tucker home run in the first inning, did a great job. Six really strong innings and he looked in control. He was pounding the strike zone, making a lot of high-quality pitches, and I loved how he was able to utilize his entire mix today”.

 

 

Meyer’s season ERA following his latest performance is down to 4.15 through ten outings. The once third overall pick has easily been Miami’s most impressive starter nearly two months in to the season.

Following Wednesday’s loss, the Marlins will embark on a cross-country trek to Anaheim to kick off their second west coast road trip of 2025. While Los Angeles has yet to announce a starter for Friday’s series-opener, Miami is set to deploy ace Sandy Alcantara, coming off another frustrating outing. Alcantara was showing signs of his Cy Young self before a four-run fifth inning ended his afternoon on Saturday. First pitch from Angel Stadium is slated for 9:38 pm ET. 

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