SILENCED: Marlins Offense VANISHES as Janson Junk SHINES, Agustin Ramirez IGNITES Hope

0:00It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey everyone, this is Ross Jackson, one of the hosts of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Thank you for being here because your support means everything. And if you're looking for another way to support the show that you love, while getting something awesome in return, check out the Every Day or Club. You get ad free episodes of your favorite Lockdown show, access to a member's only group chat for fans of your team, and you can even jump into the national chats and talk about whatever's happening across the league. Tap the Every Day or Club link in the show notes to learn more. Janssen Junk tosses a gem for the Marlins, but the offense responds with only three hits and zero run support. It wasted opportunity in a game the Marlins could have had. You are Lockdown Marlins, your daily podcast on the Miami Marlins.

1:04Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Jamie Goldman and welcome into another edition of the Lockdown Marlins Podcast. Lockdown. It's a number one sports podcast network. And today's episode is brought to you by Fandall. Right now customers can bet just $5 and get $250 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Visit fandall.com to get started, play your game. On today's show, we'll preview Sandial Contra's first start since tossing his complete game shut out, Aumatics, a week ago, plus we'll get into some of the positives from what was a rough outing from the fish last night. But we begin today with that rough outing as the offense was non-existent last night. As I mentioned a moment ago, only three hits in the ball game last night. You only had one moment in that entire game where you had a runner in scoring position.

2:07So not only were the fish having trouble getting guys on base, but once they were on base, they didn't get past first all but just one time. That was an Augustine Ramirez home, excuse me, triple that happened in the sixth inning. Jacob Marcy came up, he struck out swinging after that. And that was the totality of the Marlins offense last night. And you wasted what was a great start from Janssen Junk, Janssen Junk goes seven and a third innings pitched with two earned runs, he put you in a position to win that ball game. Two nothing was the score when Junk left the game, he had Tyler Phillips then come in, he gave you an inning and two thirds of scoreless baseball as well, but the Marlins offense could never get their feet off the ground and the fish dropped game one to the reds to to nothing. And this is a reds team that has been consistently winning games in this fashion.

3:10The reds are seven and oh this season, keep in mind, they're seven and three on the season overall. So all of their wins, they're seven and oh in games decided by two runs or less. So this is a team that is doing the little things and they're doing the little things well and they're coming through in the clutch when needed, especially on the pitching side of things. The reds have a two nine three ERA that's fifth in major league baseball through the first week and a half or so of play and the reds have done a great job, limiting the offense on the other side and capitalizing when their opportunities come about. One man to point to Ellie Della Cruz, this is a guy that's probably the most dangerous hitter on that reds team, he's a guy with a ton of speed and he hurt you last night with that speed, he legged out a double, I believe it was in the fourth inning, he legs out a double and then a base hit by the next batter brings home Della Cruz and that got

4:15the reds on the board. This guy is so fast, Ellie Della Cruz, he runs like a gazelle, I was honestly shocked when they showed the replay of the just how swiftly and how smooth this guy runs the base paths and it looked like it was going to be a single off the bat, but Della Cruz is so fast, he put himself in scoring position and then they were able to drive home later in that inning. Stuart was the one that drove him home. Stuart's honestly, him and Della Cruz have been the two best hitters for the reds so far this season, so not a surprise that Della Cruz gets the double and then Stuart drives him in and the Marlins found themselves behind the eight ball one nothing in that game. I mean, Jans Junk did about everything you could possibly do in this ball game. I mean, he gave you seven and a third inning, he pitched efficiently only 87 pitches in the ball game, but the offense couldn't get anything going, it's top to bottom and this goes back to the Marlins struggling against left handed pitchers and again another thing

5:21we kind of touched on in our previous episode when me and Ethan were together was the decision and how much we've been seeing of Austin Slater when he consistently has been playing poorly. I understand the thought process of bringing a guy like Slater in, but we just kind of set the table if you missed yesterday's episode. Slater was signed a day about 24 hours before opening day and then he was your opening day lead off hitter. He went over on opening day in fact, he was over on the season up until some days win over the Yankees. He went two for three in that ball game, but other than that game, he doesn't have a hit on the entire season. He's made some good plays in the field, but I don't think that's enough to keep you in the lineup. Let alone keep you in the lineup batting lead off. Now after last, the last night's over three from Austin Slater, he had two strikeouts in the game last night as well. He's now one for, excuse me. He's now one thirty three on the season and to add insult to injury there, you pinch hit

6:27Owen Casey in the eighth inning. He immediately draws a walk and gets you a few and far between base runner in that game last night. One can only wonder what would have happened last night if Slater wouldn't have gotten the start and Casey would have gotten the start. The lineup could have looked a little bit different and that game maybe could have went a little bit differently. Another thing we touched on in the previous episode was the decision to have Xavier Edward so late in the lineup, I understand that's kind of a righty lefty thing too, but he's a switch hitter and I understand switch hitter doesn't mean you're the same versus righty's versus lefties and X is historically better versus righties, but the hot start he's been off to this season keeping him in the seventh hole doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but maybe McCullough was on to something with that one because Edward's did see his mind game hitting streak snack last night and in reality there was no offense for this Marlin

7:28scene last night. But go one more thing on Slater, Slater sets the tone for your offense and he set the tone yesterday with a strikeout in the first inning and that set the tone for your entire game of guys fanning and missing pitches and not being able to get on base. As I mentioned, only three hits in last night's loss for the Marlin, so offense was at a premium of premiums in last night's game. Same thing was true on the other side, Jansen junk pitches of jam, only two orange runs in the game, a two nothing win for the Reds. I mentioned a moment ago, the Reds, seven and O in games decided by two runs or less. So the Reds have been a clutch team, they've been really good at winning close games. A saying that I love to go to is in this league, you're either hot or you're due and right now the Reds are definitely hot, whereas I think I'm going to kind of spin those spins on this thing and put a positive spin on this for the Marlins. Yes, the Reds are hot, seven and O in games decided by two runs or less, but in my opinion

8:33they're also due for a loss, you know, they haven't lost a game, a close game like that just yet. Marlins are a team that have won a lot of these close games as well off to this start of the season. And this is, this is what it's going to be like for the Marlins all season long. They're going to find themselves in close games. I don't see this team as one that's going to blow you out on a consistent basis. And we've seen the resiliency from this team already this season, a come from behind win over the Yankees on Sunday. You almost had a come from behind win on Saturday as well. That was a game that you find yourself down big, you climb back. I think they were down six to four in that game. They came back and tied it six to six, you end up losing the game. But the Marlins have shown resilience so far this season. That was something that we didn't see a lot of last night. The Basters couldn't get anything going. The Basters couldn't get anything going. You had your only runner and scoring position of the whole game was an Augustine Ramirez

9:36triple that came in the late stages of that game. We'll kind of touch on that triple a little bit further coming up in a moment. But you know, this is a Reds team that doesn't hit the ball well. They haven't hit the ball well all season. They're batting 210 on the season. They're under 300 for on base percentage as well. So near the bottom of the league and batting average as well as on base percentage are the Reds. And yet with that being said, they find ways to win a 293 ERA. So they've done a good job pitching and limiting offense on the other side of the ball. And this Reds team just finds ways to win. And they did that exhibiting was last night's game against the Marlins that they lost on Monday night. Janssen junk did everything for you. He put you in a position to win that game seven and a third innings. You know, he got himself out of a couple of jams. You got himself out of a jam in the first inning. Just in third with only one out, he rolls a double play ball, get himself out of that

10:37inning. But Janssen junk, it doesn't matter what he did last night, the zero runs is never going to win the ball game. So Janssen junk takes an unfortunate loss in last night's game. Even though he pitched a really solid game, a game that usually would be good enough to at least get you a no decision, usually even a win. But Marlins offense was nowhere to be found last night. Hopefully they can pick it up tonight. But coming up, we'll be taking a look at some of the positives to take away from last night's loss, including the possibility that Augustine Ramirez could be turning the corner. So all of that coming up right after this. The NBA playoffs are almost here where every possession matters, every matchup is magnified and every game can swing a series where even seeing that right now is the playoff push is on. And right now, Fandoah was giving customers a great way to get in on the action.

11:41That's new customers, especially. Here's what I like about it. You can bet just $5 and get 250 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. The app makes it easy to follow the action with player stats, trends, matchups all in one place, and during the playoffs, that extra insight really matters when you're looking at stars, role players, and key moments. It makes the entire playoffs experience more engaging from starts of finish. And it's not just basketball on Fandoah. For example, you can bet the Marlins on the money line, their minus 130 tonight for their game against the Red Sandial Contra on the mound. So maybe something you want to take a look at on Fandoah tonight. So go ahead, go to fandoah.com right now to get started, Fandoah play your game. And baseball is finally back. And to celebrate, I'm giving you a full month of the every day or club for free.

12:41Go to locked on marlins dot supercars dot com and use our code finally. Go to lock every episode, add free and get access to our private listener group chat. Tap the link in the show notes and use our code finally to claim your free month. Now last night's loss for the Marlins, not a pretty scene start to finish. We already touched on the bad from this game. The fact that the Marlins weren't able to get anyone on base. They only had three hits in the ball game. The only extra base hit was that Augustine Ramirez triple that came. I believe it was in the sixth inning. It was in the seventh inning. Excuse me. No, it was in the sixth. What am I saying? It was in the sixth. I was looking at my notes incorrectly here. But in the sixth inning, Augustine Ramirez finally showed us some of that power that we saw all season last year. And we've been wondering, Marlins fans have been wondering, where is this power? It, myself included, if you've been following along with the podcast so far, I've been

13:45high on Augustine Ramirez power so far this season. I had high expectations for him coming into it. And he hasn't lived up to it so far. But last night, we finally saw a shade of that in the sixth inning. He gets a hold of one and it was carrying. It looked like it could have been out. It looked like trouble for the Reds. But it literally bounced off the top of the wall and came back into play. So another unfortunate bounce for the Marlins last night in a game full of unfortunate bounces. And Augustine Ramirez was at the forefront of that. But another positive to mention for Augustine Ramirez last night, we've mentioned his woes behind the plate, how he struggled last night. He looked okay from the plate. Yes, he let. I think there was two stolen bases in that ballgame, but you can't expect them to get everyone. You can't expect any catcher to get all of them, especially a guy like Augustine who has struggled behind the plate.

14:45But in addition to letting two stolen bases come across, he also caught someone stealing in a big moment in the seventh inning. So that hopefully is a sign of things to come for the Marlins backstop. Listen, Clayton McCullough and this staff is committed to Augustine Ramirez being the catcher, being the permanent catcher, the everyday guy that you can rely on behind the plate and as your backstop for this Miami Marlins team. So they're all in on this thing. And last night's performance was the first time this season that I've looked and I've said, okay, Augustine was okay last night. He made a couple of nights blocks. He caught someone stealing in the seventh inning and that ended the inning. Will Benson tried to steal set second base in the seventh last night. This was still a one nothing game at this point. And this would have put a runner in scoring position that would have put the pressure on the pitcher. I think it was still junk at that point as junk went at seven and a third in that game. No, excuse me. It was Tyler Phillips at that point because this ended the inning, which is what I was

15:49getting to right now. This ended the inning. So what could have been a runner in scoring position and this lead kind of snowballing for the Reds. Instead, he gets thrown out at second and the Marlins backs come back for another chance in the seventh. As you know by now, the Marlins backs couldn't get anything going in the seventh eight or ninth or the entire game for that matter. So the fish fall in game one to the Reds, but some good things to take from Augustine Ramirez's performance. Yeah, the triple that was also close to being a home run in the sixth. And then he threw a runner out in the seventh. So a couple of good innings back to back from Augustine Ramirez. Another thing I kind of want to touch on a positive from last night's game, Javier Sonoha. We've been talking about the defense being a cause of concern for the Marlins. We talked about that in our episode yesterday, but Javier Sonoha is probably, you could

16:51say your best defender on this team. They got some good guys on the defensive side of the ball, but Javier Sonoha is so special because of how versatile he is. He started the yesterday's game at third, he gets moved to second, and he doesn't skip a beat. In the ninth inning, he saved a run and kept the Marlins in that ballgame, gave them a chance to come back and win in the ninth. If he doesn't make that play in the ninth, a run scores. The inning continues. You're down three to nothing. All momentum is gone, and there's no chance for the fish to really climb back into that game. All of the momentum would have been with the Reds. Javier Sonoha makes a web gem type of a play. He reaches up, he grabs that ball, a line drive, hit to second, hit sharply to second base. Javier contorts his body, makes the play with the glove, gets out of the inning, and gives the Marlins a chance. In that moment, I'm sitting here thinking about my podcast the next day, I'm sitting here thinking about the Marlins, and I'm sitting here thinking, that's the moment that changed the game.

17:52That's going to be the momentum shifter, the Marlins are feeling good. What was going to be a three-nothing game stays at two, gives you a chance to come back in the ninth and make some plays. You come into the ninth. I believe they went one, two, three, and the ninth and couldn't get anything going. But nonetheless, a positive to take from last night's game was Javier Sonoha's performance in the field, especially in that ninth inning, making that grab and saving a run in the ninth. Javier picks up where he left off last year, gold glove. He earned the gold glove honors for utility players last season, so really goes to show his versatility. This is a guy that can play third. This is a guy that can play second. He can play a little bit of outfield. He can do a little bit of everything for your defense, does Javier Sonoha, which brings me to a guy that's really been struggling, and the numbers say he's continuing to struggle. That's Jacob Marcy. If you watch yesterday's episode, my goal he's guaranteed was that Jacob Marcy would

18:56have a multi-hit game, get off of his snide, get off of his cold streak he's on in this series with a multi-hit game. And last night, he hit the ball so well and had nothing to show for it once again. It's been kind of the story of the season for Marcy. And he struggled in the World Baseball Classic, and he struggled out of the gates here. Last night, he hits a line drive early in the game, and his first at bat, right to the right fielder, that's 0 for 1. And his second at bat, he hits another line drive, hit very well out to center field, right to the center fielder, that's out number 2. And then he struck out swinging with Augustine Ramirez on third base. That was the only opportunity for the Marlins in the ball game with runners in scoring position. So it's so close. He's going to turn, he's running into some unfortunate events, and then yeah, he had that kind of ugly strike out in the sixth with Augustine on third base, but he's hitting

19:59the ball well. He's starting to turn, he just needs, I really think he just needs one to drop, and he's going to get hot. This is a guy that may be kind of streaky. He's still really young in his career, so honestly, we don't have enough on him to say whether he's streaky or he's good or it was a fluke or what the case may be. But I think Jacob Marcy's a good hit or the way he first onto the scene last season. Honestly, in my Marlins fandom, I can't remember many players lighting up the bigs in his first call up as Jacob Marcy did last season. He kind of tailed off towards the end of last season. He finished with a 2-92 batting average, still not too shabby for the first year player but this season, he hasn't been getting the bounces. I think he's batting 118 the last time I checked, so Marcy, I mentioned it earlier in this league, you're either hot or you're due, and let me tell you, Jacob Marcy is the definition

21:02of due right now. So Jacob Marcy, multi-hit game, I still think it's going to happen. It's still my goal, he's guaranteed for this series. So we'll keep an eye on Jacob Marcy as this series continues, but coming up the Sandman back out for his first start since throwing that complete game shut out about a week ago. It was a Maddox, only 93 pitches to put away the white socks, 10 to nothing, last Wednesday to look to pick up right where he left off here tonight against the Reds. So we'll preview that one, coming up as well as take a look at the rest of the series, put it up right after this break. Hey, this is Jeff Carr from Lockdown Reds, and when it comes to our futures, we all have great ideas when it comes to our job, when it comes to our house, when it comes to our vehicles, all that great stuff. But honestly, when it comes to securing that future, I don't know what I don't know.

22:04And when me and my wife set down to figure out the life insurance thing, ethos made everything simple. Things online, you have a quick and easy application process, and you find out exactly what you need for coverage all in one spot. Ethos makes everything so convenient. When it comes to learning about your own life insurance, because insurance is something that is far beyond batting average or on base percentage, it's way out and left field for me. Ethos made it all easy. Take just 10 minutes and get covered today with life insurance through ethos. Get your free quote at ethos.com slash locked on MLB. That's E-T-H-O-S dot com slash locked on MLB. Application times may vary and rates may vary. Sandy all contra back on the mound tonight, he's been off to about as high as a start to the season as you can be 16 innings pitched zero earned runs.

23:06Let me say that again. 16 innings pitched zero earned runs for the Marlins ace, Sandy all contra, the 2022 side young winner, Sandy all contra, he came off an injury last season and he was rocky last season, but towards the end of that year, Sandy seemed to kind of find his footing and he has picked up where he left off at the end of last season and it looks like the Marlins ace is back in full fledged Sandy way of being. Last start against the white socks last Wednesday, it was an afternoon game and it was a doozy of an afternoon game. Nine innings pitched a complete game shut out only three hits allowed and he did it about as efficiently as you can, only 93 pitches in that ball game, a Maddox for Sandy all contra and he's back on the mound tonight to face the Reds, a Reds team that has been pretty

24:07cold on the offensive side of things so far this season, we mentioned it earlier, we'll take another look at it now, only batting two tenths on the season for a team batting average, they're under 300 as far as on base percentage goes, only two 90s so a little bit better than that batting average, but still nothing to write home about for the Reds and they struggled last night, couldn't really get much going, only had one run up until that seven thinning where they hit the solo home run so there only two runs came on and Ellie Della Cruz double which honestly could have been a single if he wasn't so speedy and then followed up by a base hit which drove home and then a long ball that hurt Janssen junk in the seven ended his night, but other than those two instances, Marlins pitching was rock solid last night, Janssen junk was good, Tyler Phillips was good, that's another positive to take from last night's game, something I didn't mention a moment ago, Tyler Phillips gave you one and two thirds innings, he only allowed a walk, no one runs, he also

25:11mixed in a strikeout, so good work from the fireball that is Tyler Phillips tonight, Sandy all contra, opponent will be Andrew Abbott, wanted to make sure I had that one right, Abbott off to an okay start to the season, he's gone in his two starts, eleven and two thirds, he's allowed twelve hits for earned runs, he also has nine strikeouts, so he's been okay, not great, not bad by any means and he'll get another shot tonight, Marlins another shot at a lefty pitcher tonight, the lefty, eight of them up last night couldn't get anything going on the Reds left hand or last night, but they get another shot tonight I'll be interested to see if Clayton McCullough sticks with Andrew Slater at the top of the line up, we've seen him kind of struggle this season, he went over last night as well, so I wouldn't be surprised if McCullough goes away from Slater, perhaps starting KC perhaps,

26:17maybe giving Sennoha an opportunity in the outfield, maybe Eriberts or Hernandez gets shifted around, I don't know, but I want to root for Slater, I want to believe in Slater, but what we've seen so far, I just don't see how his performance warrants a lead off hitter in your line up when you have guys that have been hot, like a Sennoha, like a Liam Hicks, I understand the platoon splits, but sometimes you just got to go with the hot hand, and right now the hot hand is on KC, he got on base again last night, and only one played appearance, he was pinch hit in the eighth inning, he came in, he got a walk, he got something started for him in the eighth, he wasn't able to get anything going as nobody brought him home, but last night was just a rough night from start to finish, for the Marlins hitting, we've seen them hit well so far this season, and hopefully they'll be able to get back on track here tonight against the Reds, Sandi Al Contra gets another chance

27:22tonight against the Reds, his career numbers versus Cincinnati, he has nine appearances, only seven starts against Cincinnati, not great, two and five, a 399 ERA, he does have one complete game, coming off a complete game, he has a complete game in his career against the Reds, so maybe something to look out for tonight in South Florida, he does have 53 strikeouts on only 49 and two-thirds innings pitched, so over a strikeout per inning for the Sandman against the Reds, as far as Andrew Abbott, he's played three games in his career against the Marlins, 16 innings pitched one and one is his record, but this is a guy that the Marlins have gotten to in the past, a 675 ERA, he does also have 16 strikeouts in those 16 innings, so he's a guy that can punch you out, exave your Edwards and Otto Lopez both have multiple hits in their career against Andrew Abbott, so could be

28:23a good night for X, could be a good night for Otto, I personally am really hoping we see X back to the top of the lineup, maybe give Owen Casey a shot as well, give Andrews later a rest day, but we'll see what Clayton wants to do as far as that goes, but Sandy gets another shot tonight after a disappointing loss last night, Janssen junk gives you the saw and start, seven in a third innings pitched, the bullpen comes in and cleans it up as well, a good inning and two-thirds from Tyler Phillips of scoreless work, but the fish lose, game one of the series, two of the reds, two to nothing, but another opportunity to night, and then Wednesday and Thursday will wrap up the four game series, Wednesday a quick preview to tomorrow's ball game, it'll be Perez versus Singer, Florida Gators legend, Brady Singer, excuse me, Brady Singer, and Max Meyer versus Rhett Louder will close things out on Thursday, that's an afternoon game, 12-10 start against the reds on Thursday, that

29:27will be Meyer versus Louder, Sandy on the mount tonight, and that's going to do it for this edition of Locked On Marlins, one more note, Goldies Guarantee, that's how I usually end the show, I'm doing one per series as far as we go right now, Jacob Marcy, I need a multi-hit game from you, my man, we're over two on the series, both of which were Augustine Ramirez home run, Goldies Guarantees, and they are both over two with Augustine Ramirez still searching for that first home run of the season, so that's going to do it for today's edition of Locked On Marlins, thank you for tuning in, we will be back with you tomorrow, hopefully talking about an even series after tonight's game, no matter how tonight's game goes, we'll be with you tomorrow to give you all the news and analysis from game two between the reds and the fish, so make sure you subscribe and follow Locked On Marlins, so you get all the latest episodes, you can find me on Twitter at Jamie Goldman 66, you

30:28can find my partner, Ethan Ibe, he'll be back with you probably sometime later this week, Ibe Play by Play, that's IPXP on pretty much all platforms, IPXP, so go check us out there, and if you've never missed an episode, the every day or club is built for you, get Locked On Marlins, add free plus members, only Discord access and more, and to Locked On Marlins dot supercars dot com to join the club, and for those of you on video, we'll send you over to our first ever 24-7 National Locked On Podcast Network YouTube channel, so go check that out, and for those of you on audio, your second lesson, go check out Locked On MLB, that's going to do it for me today, have a good day everybody, and go fish!