Jose Fernandez struggled mightily and his Miami Marlins fell to the Cleveland Indians 8-3 on Saturday.
Fernandez allowed seven runs in his 5.2 innings of work. Only six of the runs were earned in what was one of Fernandez's worst starts of the season. The right-hander allowed 12 hits and two walks while striking out five. Fernandez is now 13-8 on the season with a 3.03 E.R.A.
The loss was the second in a row for Miami in Cleveland. The Marlins are also now back at .500 and are missing opportunities to stay in the Wild Card race. While Miami still has a chance of making the playoffs, its hopes are diminishing daily.
The Marlins scored three runs in the top of the first inning, but that lead was shortlived. The Indians would score two runs of their own in the bottom half and added three more runs in the next two innings. All of those runs came against Fernandez.
Miami only had four hits in the game as a team and only one of those was for extra bases. Christian Yelich doubled for the 34th time this season and had a pair of runs batted in. Yelich now has 85 RBI this year and he also scored a run in the loss. Derek Dietrich added the other RBI in his first game back off the disabled list.
Tom Koehler will get the ball on Sunday for the series finale.
