DENVER — Miami Marlins right-hander Max Meyer’s bid to become the first pitcher in franchise history to win 10 consecutive decisions to open a season ended Wednesday when the Colorado Rockies tagged him for five runs — only one earned — over six innings.
The 27-year-old Meyer, who entered 9-0, surrendered a first-inning solo homer to Mickey Moniak and then held the Rockies scoreless until the fifth, when four unearned runs turned a 2-1 Miami deficit into a 5-2 Colorado lead. Troy Johnston singled and Kyle Karros reached on a fielding error by second baseman Javier Sanoja, the 2025 Gold Glove Award-winning utility player who got the start to give Xavier Edwards a rare breather. Backup catcher Brian Navarreto threw out the lead runner at third on a sacrifice-bunt attempt and Jake McCarthy grounded out to first, but Moniak delivered a two-run triple to right-center before Hunter Goodman took Meyer deep.
“He’s tough,” Moniak said of Meyer. “Obviously, we knew going in, he’s 9-0, good ERA, one of the best pitchers in the league up until this point. He throws about 60 percent breaking balls. It’s a hard breaking ball. For us, it was just kind of tunneling him, trying to get him up. If he gets that breaking ball down, tough pitch to lay off, so just trying to set the sights up.”
Meyer adjusted heavily for the Mile High City’s altitude, throwing 73.1% sliders and sweepers compared to just 14.1% fastballs. Both homers came on fastballs. “The second one was a sinker,” Meyer said. “Obviously, the movement wasn’t there. The location was in. The other one was away. Just a tough one.” He added: “You’ve got to switch it up when you’re playing here. That’s just the game plan we had. Obviously, I wish I could throw more, but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”
Manager Clayton McCullough pulled Meyer after just 78 pitches and six frames with the club trailing by three runs, citing the environment and the pitcher’s long-term health. Meyer has already set career highs with 18 starts and 103 innings and has never thrown more than 115 frames in a professional season, a mark set in 2024 between Triple-A Jacksonville and the Majors. “It just takes a different kind of toll on your body and everything,” McCullough said. “We’re certainly thinking about Max long term, and he threw the ball well, and at six innings tonight, and with where things were, that was enough.”
Meyer hadn’t been in line for a loss since six starts ago, when the Marlins trailed the Mets by two runs in an eventual 9-7 loss in 10 innings at Citi Field. He allowed a career-high-tying six runs — five earned — in that outing, then posted a 1.78 ERA across five June starts as Miami went an MLB-best 20-6 in the month. Despite the defeat, Meyer struck out five and walked none, notching his sixth quality start in his past nine turns. Miami dropped to 13-5 in Meyer starts, tied with National League Cy Young hopeful Cristopher Sánchez and Guardians lefty Joey Cantillo for the best team record for any pitcher with at least 18 starts.
Asked whether he could take any positives from the outing, Meyer was blunt. “Not really,” he said. “I’ve got to make a pitch there. I didn’t make a pitch, and then all that happened in one inning. It’s a tough one. Not going to take anything away from this game. Just going to throw it away and get on to the next one.”