Miami Marlins and Chen Fall to the Phillies on the Road

The road continues to be unkind to Miami Marlins starting pitcher Wei-Yin Chen as he and the team fell to the Philadelphia Phillies 14-2 on Friday night.

The Miami Marlins lost for the fourth time in as many games, as the Philadelphia Phillies blistered the visiting team, 14-2. Marlins starting pitcher Wei-Yin Chen once again could not figure out how to earn a victory on the road.

“Chen has struggled away from Miami in 2018. Even after having one of the better stretches of his career,” Joe Bloss of MLB.com wrote. The veteran has looked better since returning from the disabled list. But the downside to that return has been a lack of consistency.

He is not alone as the Marlins have not found much footing on this most recent road trip that has included stops in Pittsburgh and New York (with the Mets) before making it to the City of Brotherly Love.

“Tonight, including my command and everything, it was bad,” Chen said through a team interpreter. “I just pitched bad. I should have made some adjustments, but I couldn’t, so that brings some damage to the team, and we couldn’t come back.”

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If there is a positive to such a demoralizing loss, it was catcher J.T. Realmuto connected on his 21st home run of the season. The game became such a blowout that backup catcher Bryan Holaday recorded the team’s final three outs of the night.

The Marlins are now 57-90 for the season and sit in last place in the National League East. They have the worst record in the National League.

Chen’s continued road woes will have an effect on how the team chooses its pitching staff for the 2019 season. Young arms that have shown progress despite this season’s woes could force the team to try and deal the 33-year-old Taiwanese player.

In 24 games this season, all starts, he has a 6-11 record with a 4.93 ERA.

As Bloss explained, Chen lasted just four innings and allowed five runs on seven hits. The Phillies took him deep twice in the second inning and piled on three more homers against Miami’s bullpen.

Miami’s relievers have also been an issue since the return from the All-Star break.

There could be changes made to the pitching staff as a whole in the offseason.

Realmuto’s home run Friday night was his 18th this season while playing behind the dish. He needs just one more to tie Charles Johnson’s franchise record set in 1997.