Pete Fairbanks was at the center of another rough Marlins finish Sunday, and this one wiped out a strong outing from Eury Pérez in a 3-1 loss to the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers.
Miami’s slide reached a season-worst six straight defeats, a sharp turn for a club that had been riding the kind of momentum it hadn’t seen in years just two weeks ago. Instead, July 19 brought another painful ending, with Fairbanks again taking the brunt of the damage in the late innings.
The Marlins closer opened the decisive sequence by giving up a leadoff single to Jackson Chourio, then a walk to Brice Turang. He did catch Andrew Vaughn looking for the first out, and even after getting ahead of William Contreras 0-2, he couldn’t finish the job. On the sixth pitch of the at-bat, Fairbanks left a cutter up, and Contreras sent it out for a walk-off three-run homer.
"Losses hurt, but going through a season, stretches like this happen," noted Marlins manager Clayton McCullough.
The Brewers have now handed Miami two walk-off losses in this weekend series alone. Garrett Mitchell delivered the first one Friday night with a game-winner in the bottom of the 10th, and Milwaukee finished the sweep Sunday with Contreras’ blast.
Offensively, the Marlins never found much traction. During this losing streak, they’ve hit just .199, and they managed only one run in each of the first and last games of the series. Sunday’s lone run came on Esteury Ruiz’s third-inning solo homer.
That was about the only blemish on an otherwise sharp day for Pérez. The 23-year-old right-hander allowed just one hit across six scoreless innings, continuing a strong stretch that has quietly become one of the few bright spots in Miami’s recent run. Over his last seven starts dating back to May 22, Pérez has given up five earned runs in 39 ⅓ innings, good for a 1.14 ERA.
Even with the skid, Miami is still hanging around the race. The Marlins are now 52-48, four games over .500, and sitting in a virtual three-way tie with the St. Louis Cardinals (51-47) and Pittsburgh Pirates (52-48) for the NL’s final wild-card spot.
Next up is a trip to Texas, where the Marlins open a series Monday against the Houston Astros. Janson Junk (4-5, 4.57 ERA) will make his second start since returning from injury, while Ronel Blanco (3-4, 4.10 ERA in 2025) is set to take the mound for the first time in 14 months after Tommy John surgery.
First pitch from Daikin Park is slated for 8:10 EST/7:10 CDT.
In Other News...
Marlins Just Got A Concerning Max Meyer Update
Max Meyers latest turn in the rotation has taken an unwelcome detour, and the timing is especially frustrating for a Marlins staff that had been trying to keep him on a steady rhythm. After working through a career-long 10-day gap between starts, Meyer looked out of sync in Saturdays outing, and Miami has now had to make a corresponding move to cover the innings.
Zach Brzykcy was brought up from Triple-A Jacksonville to fill the roster spot, but the bigger concern is what this means for Meyers immediate availability and the teams plans around him. The Marlins have been trying to manage his workload carefully as he pushes past several personal benchmarks, and any interruption now adds another layer of uncertainty to a pitcher they were counting on to keep building. [Read more 🡒]
Marlins Bullpen Gamble Looks Worse After Another Pete Fairbanks Meltdown
Pete Fairbanks season has become one of the more frustrating subplots in Miamis bullpen, because the Marlins have gotten the one thing they can never quite count on from a reliever in his role: availability. He has stayed on the mound and taken the ball regularly, which matters in a market where free-agent closers are often judged by both health and results, but the results have been hard to ignore. Through 33 games, Fairbanks has carried a 7.42 ERA and has had multiple outings turn ugly in a hurry, even if the save total still looks serviceable on paper.
The problem for Miami is that the margin for error is shrinking, and each rough appearance makes the offseason gamble look a little more expensive. Fairbanks has blown only three of 16 save chances, but the bigger issue is how often he has put the Marlins in danger before the ninth inning is even over. At some point, the club has to decide whether the current usage still makes sense, or whether a different late-game plan is needed to keep these losses from piling up. [Read more 🡒]