Miami Marlins swept by Pittsburgh Pirates, begin season 0-4 for first time since 2001

The Miami Marlins know they still have a long season ahead of them.

But it’s safe to say no one is happy with how this first series unfolded.

For the second time in four days, the Marlins saw an early lead slip away after turning the game over to their bullpen and couldn’t fully recover.

The result: a 9-7, 10-inning loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday at loanDepot park. The Pirates swept the four-game series, sending Miami to an 0-4 start to a season for the first time since 2001.

The Marlins lost the first three games against Pittsburgh (4-0) 6-5 in 12 innings on Thursday, 7-2 on Friday and 9-3 on Saturday.

“We’re very frustrated right now,” Marlins center fielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. said, “but we’re still at the beginning of the season. It’s the first four games of the season.”

On Sunday, the Pirates scored the game-winning run when Alika Williams and Jason Delay hit back-to-back sacrifice bunts against Tanner Scott to score Oneil Cruz, Pittsburgh’s automatic runner at second base to begin the inning. A bases-loaded walk to Michael A. Taylor pushed across a second run for Pittsburgh in the inning.

Josh Bell hit a leadoff single in the bottom of the 10th to put runners on the corners (Luis Arraez started on second to begin the inning), but Jake Burger hit a flyout to center, Bryan De La Cruz struck out swinging and Chisholm struck out looking to end it.

Prior to extra innings, Rowdy Tellez hit a three-run home run to straightaway center against reliever Vladimir Gutierrez to cap a nine-pitch at bat with two outs in the seventh inning to put Pittsburgh up 7-6. Nick Gordon hit a pinch-hit, game-tying home run in the ninth to send the game to extra innings.

It spoiled early production from the Marlins’ offense in the finale.

Chisholm hit a grand slam as part of a five-run first inning against Pirates starter Bailey Falter and Avisail Garcia, who had been booed nearly every time he took the field since the young season began, hit a solo home run of his own in the fourth.

Burger also had an RBI single in the first inning to go 7 for 16 with six RBI through the first four games of the season. He is the seventh player in Marlins history to have at least one RBI in each of his first four games of the season.

“Once you score five,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said, “you don’t want to take your foot off the gas. We didn’t score until the fourth after that. It felt like we had [Falter] on the ropes a little bit. He settled in.”

Left-handed pitcher Trevor Rogers worked through a 38-pitch second inning to get through five innings in his first start since April 19 of last season. He struck out six while giving up four runs on seven hits and four walks. Three of those runs came in that second inning.

Over the course of the Marlins’ first series, Marlins starting pitchers combined to pitch just 16 innings, with Jesus Luzardo on Opening Day and Rogers on Sunday the the only two to pitch five innings. A.J. Puk only went two innings on Friday and Ryan Weathers was pulled after four innings on Saturday.

That left nine relievers to pick up the remaining 24 innings.

“Our bullpen is absolutely taxed,” Schumaker said.

Gutierrez, who was one of the final roster cuts from spring training but was promoted to the big-league roster ahead of the series finale, pitched four innings in relief on Sunday before Scott pitched the 10th inning.

“It starts with the starting pitching,” Schumaker said. “I mean, that’s just the reality. It starts with them. We have good enough starters to win a game every game. ... If we pitch and play defense, we have enough offense to break through. But I feel like if we don’t get five strong innings or more, it’s challenging to win games.”

The Marlins continue their first homestand of the season with a three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels.

“This is not going to last forever,” Garcia said. “We’ve just got to keep working.”