No Miami Marlins sweep at Wrigley after shutout loss to Chicago Cubs in finale

There was no sweep at Wrigley Field.

But Miami Marlins manager Don Mattingly hopes there was the start of a turnaround.

The 2-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Sunday was at the front of his mind, but the shutout loss came after the Marlins scored a combined 21 runs in their first two games of the series (10-2 win on Friday and 11-1 win on Saturday) to give them their first series victory on the road in a month.

“Obviously today is not what we wanted,” Mattingly said postgame. “We wanted to end it [with a sweep], but I think we did get back on track.”

The Marlins went 2-4 overall on this road trip, which began with a three-game sweep by the St. Louis Cardinals during which they scored just three runs.

Miami’s offense had a rare outburst on Friday and Saturday, including seven home runs (four by outfielder Adam Duvall) and 20 total hits.

“We got going,” Mattingly said. “That was a pretty good feeling.”

It didn’t carry into the finale.

The Marlins (31-40) recorded just six hits, four of which came with two outs, and had just one runner in scoring position on the afternoon.

“We got a few hits,” Mattingly said, “but they all came kind of without a chance to really get a rally going.”

Zach Thompson, making his third start of the season for Miami, threw four no-hit innings and struck out a career-high seven batters but gave up an unearned run in the third inning to take the loss. Jason Heyward walked to begin the inning, reached third on a fielding error by Miguel Rojas on a Joc Pederson groundball that skipped out of Rojas’ glove, and scored on a Jorge Alfaro passed ball.

Thompson’s cutter was a big reason for his success. He threw the pitch 27 times and got six swings and misses. He used that pitch to record eight of his outs, including five of his seven strikeouts.

“It’s pretty important,” Thompson said, “If I’m throwing it well, it’s gonna come out just like my fastball, the same kind of spin and everything. As long as I’m throwing that pitch, it’s something that I can count on to get swing and misses. I can count on to be an in-play kind of pitch, like just get a nice little groundball or easy pop fly or something like that. As long as I’ve got that cutter going, I know it’s gonna be pretty good day.”

The Cubs (40-32) added an insurance run in the fifth when Pederson’s RBI single off Ross Detwiler scored Patrick Wisdom, who opened the inning with an infield single to Rojas after a 15-pitch at-bat.

Other notables

▪ Outfielder Jesus Sanchez, the No. 5 prospect in the Marlins organization and No. 99 overall prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline, had at least one hit in all three games against the Cubs and is on a four-game hitting streak. The Marlins want to get a good look at what the 23-year-old can provide to the club long-term.

▪ While Rojas had a pair of rare mishaps defensively on Sunday, Mattingly said the shortstop’s return “solidifies us defensively.” Rojas, who returned to the active roster after missing 18 games due to a left index finger dislocation, said his hand has felt fine.

▪ The Marlins took two of three in Chicago despite only using one of their main three starting pitchers. Pablo Lopez threw seven shutout innings in Saturday’s win, but he was bookended by Cody Poteet (3 2/3 innings, two earned runs, five strikeouts) on Friday and Thompson on Sunday.

Sandy Alcantara is scheduled to take the mound Tuesday when the Marlins begin a two-game series with the Toronto Blue Jays at loanDepot park. Trevor Rogers is slated to start on Wednesday.

“With Trevor, Sandy and Pablo, you feel like you’re gonna get pretty consistent starts all the time,” Mattingly said. “If those other two guys can do that, it starts to build that confidence that every time we give the guy a ball, we’ve got a chance to win that game.”

▪ With 1 2/3 scoreless innings on Sunday, Marlins reliever Anthony Bender now has the seventh-longest streak without allowing an earned run to start his career in MLB history with 19 1/3 innings. Brad Ziegler holds the record with 38 innings pitched without allowing an earned run from May 31, 2008, to Aug. 12, 2008.