Miscues doom Miami Marlins against Houston Astros. Takeaways from the loss

A combination of miscues resulted in the Miami Marlins dropping the middle game of their three-game series to the Houston Astros, 6-5, on Tuesday at loanDepot park.

The loss snaps Miami’s three-game win streak and drops the Marlins to 63-58 on the season. Houston improves to 69-52.

Marlins pitchers gave up three home runs, with Yanier Diaz in the fourth inning and Chas McCormick in the sixth taking Johnny Cueto deep on a middle-up changeup and middle-away four-seam fastball, respectively and then Kyle Tucker sending a middle-middle fastball from A.J. Puk a projected 422 feet into the second deck in right field in the seventh for the go-ahead run.

And with two outs in the fifth, a collision between Bryan De La Cruz and Jazz Chisholm Jr. in left-center field on a Tucker fly ball allowed another run to score.

The Marlins and Astros wrap up their series at 6:40 p.m. Wednesday. Left-handed pitcher Jesus Luzardo (8-7, 3.91 ERA) starts for Miami opposite Houston’s Justin Verlander (7-6, 3.19).

Here are three takeaways from the game.

The good and bad from ‘aggressive’ Jazz Chisholm Jr.

Chisholm Jr. impact on the Marlins’ lineup is easily noticed. When healthy, his combination of power and speed is a noted and needed addition for Miami.

That was on display in his first two at-bats Tuesday. He hit a leadoff triple in the second inning and followed with a leadoff single and stolen base in the fourth. Chisholm scored both times.

However, those two plays were overshadowed by a defensive miscue in the outfield, when he collided with De La Cruz in the fifth. The ball, which had a 95 percent catch probability for De La Cruz and 45 percent catch probability for Chisholm according to Statcast, dropped, allowing Mauricio Dubon to score from second base and tie the game at 4-4.

“We were both going very aggressive to the ball,” Chisholm said. “We both didn’t hear each other. Just going hard, trying to make a play. ... It happens. We shook it off and we just kept on playing.”

Chisholm, playing center field this season for the time in his career, overall has held his own in the outfield. He entered Tuesday with four outs above average and was credited with a 90 percent success rate, according to Statcast.

“He’s an aggressive player,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said of Chisholm. “Maybe a little bit overly aggressive on the ball in the gap with that collision. He’s just an aggressive player. Hits the triple. Runs the bases extremely well. It’s good that he’s healthy to steal bases. ... I think there’s just some overaggressiveness tonight. But that’s OK. That’s stuff that we can control and we can clean up.”

Jorge Soler hits 30th home run

While it came in a losing effort, designated hitter Jorge Soler hit a milestone with his 30th home run of the season when he sent a Christian Javier four-seam fastball 376 feet to right-center field in the third inning.

Soler, a first-time All-Star this season, is the first Marlins player to hit 30 home runs in a season since Giancarlo Stanton and Marcell Ozuna both accomplished the feat in 2017 and the 13th player overall in franchise history to hit the mark in a season.

Soler hit the 30-homer mark in 114 games, the fifth-fastest in club history.

After hitting 23 home runs in the first half of the season, Soler went into a slump following the All-Star Game. He hit just one home run in the first 13 games of the second half before getting an off day on July 30.

Since then, Soler is hitting .275 (14 for 51) over his past 13 games with six home runs, one double, 11 RBI and eight runs scored.

Home runs continue to plague Johnny Cueto

Cueto on Tuesday allowed five runs (four earned runs) on seven hits and two walks while striking out three over 5 1/3 innings to push his ERA to 5.57 on the season.

After two strong outings upon his return from the injured list after the All-Star Break — three shutout innings out of the bullpen on July 16 and six innings of one-run ball on July 22 — Cueto has allowed 15 earned runs over 22 1/3 innings (a 6.04 ERA) over his past four starts. Eleven of those 15 earned runs were allowed on seven home runs.

“This is part of the game, [giving up] home runs,” Cueto said. “There’s nothing I can say.”

Schumaker added: “Literally all the runs he gives up, it seems, are the home run. It’s unfortunate because he was pitching good.”