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Olsen struggles, Marlins fall to Mariners

The Marlins snapped Felix Hernandez’s streak of scoreless starts on Tuesday night in Seattle, touching him up for 3 runs in 7.1 innings but it wasn’t enough to undo the early struggles of Scott Olsen, who had his shortest start since May 23, lasting just 4 1/3 innings and giving up 4 runs. The Mariners topped the Fish 5-4, handing them their first ever franchise loss at Safeco Field.

Entering this game, the blame for Olsen going winless in his three previous starts could be pinned elsewhere. In each of those outings, he had gone at least 6 innings and had never allowed more than 3 earned runs. Tonight, it only took the worst team in baseball 4 innings to knock out 11 hits and plate 4 runs. For most of the season, Fredi Gonzalez has had a pretty quick hook but in this one, Olsen couldn’t be pulled soon enough. He was ineffective from the first pitch he threw. Undoubtedly, the frustration of pitching well and not having anything to show for it is getting to the 24-year-old who has a history of anger problems. Despite tossing five quality outings, Olsen has not won since nearly doing it all himself on May 6 against Milwaukee. Until now, we’ve seen him mature excessively both on the mound and off this year but on Tuesday, Olsen reverted back to his old habit of trying to throw 200 MPH when he got in a jam. The key for the young lefty is to stay within himself. Rough nights happen. Dry spells happen. That’s baseball.

Just ask King Felix, who, after losing 5 out of 6 from June 27 to May 26, has won his last 4 starts. He’s lasted at least 7 innings in each of those outings. Tonight, he dominated the Marlins through 5. Florida somewhat solved him in the 6th, plating 2 but Hernandez came back with his ninth and final strikeout to end the threat and the inning. From that point on, the Marlins went 1 for their last 10. Not even Wes Helms, who is hitting .367/.424/.700/1.124 with 2 homers and 10 RBI in late and close situations, could save them. He K’d to end the game.

Rubber match tomorrow night. Ryan Tucker vs. R.A. Dickey. After sparkling in his first outing, Tucker was roughed up his last time out against the Rays, allowing 5 runs and taking the loss. Dickey’s last outing didn’t go as planned, either. The knuckleballing righty was shelled by the Nationals, giving up 7 runs in just 2 frames. He’s seen the Marlins twice in his career and has a 1-0 record with a 4.50 ERA.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 at 11:43 am and is filed under Game Recaps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.