WASHINGTON -- Ichthyophobia. It's the fear of fish, and if Tanner Roark isn't already suffering from it, he will be soon.
Coming off a road start in which he limited the world-beating Chicago Cubs to just one unearned run in six innings and outperformed some guy named Arrieta, Roark got manhandled by the Miami Marlins. Again.
In the Washington Nationals' 7-1 loss to Miami, the second game of a day-night Saturday doubleheader in which a suspended Bryce Harper was out of the lineup along with fellow regulars Ryan Zimmerman, Jayson Werth and Danny Espinosa, Roark got pounded to the tune of eight hits and seven runs in five frames. By the time the third inning was over, he'd already allowed the Marlins to hit for the cycle, including a 433-foot blast to dead center by Justin Bour. The home run was Bour's fifth at Nats Park since the start of the 2015 season, the most of any visiting player in D.C. during that time. Two of those bombs have come against Roark, who is to the Fish what a plastic mole is to a Whac-a-Mole mallet.
In five starts this season against teams not named the Marlins, Roark is 2-0 with a 0.79 ERA and a 0.89 WHIP. Included among those outings is a 15-strikeout performance against the Twins, a quality start against the defending champion Royals and the aforementioned out-Arrieta-ing of Jake Arrieta. Meanwhile, in three outings against division rival Miami, which entered Saturday having scored the fourth-fewest runs in the National League, the 29-year-old righty is now 0-3 with an 8.40 ERA and 2.13 WHIP.
It's not like Roark floundering when he faces the Fish is something new, either. Last season, he was 0-3 with a 5.79 ERA against Miami. So what in the name of kryptonite is going on?
"I don't know," said Roark after the loss, which dropped his record to 2-3 and gave the Nationals a split in the doubleheader. "They just scored more runs than we did. It is what it is. You're not going to have a shutout game. Sometimes these games happen, and it happens. I'm still pitching my game. I'm not going to change. I'm still going to attack the hitters and go after them, so I don't know. I don't have any answers for you."
Dusty Baker didn't have any answers either.
"I don't know," said the Nationals skipper. "We're trying to figure that out, too. I hope that team's not becoming a nemesis to him. Because you know, everybody has a couple teams that they've had some trouble with. Mike [pitching coach Mike Maddux] has gone back to the drawing board each time, and we're trying to figure it out."
Hopefully, they'll figure it out soon, because after the Nationals finish with their series with the Marlins on Sunday, they go to New York for a three-game series against the Mets, then to Miami to face the Fish again. Do the math, and that would mean that Roark gets the start at Marlins Park on Friday. Alternatively, Baker could decide to use Stephen Strasburg -- who threw earlier on Saturday in Game 1 of the doubleheader and is slated to face the Mets on Thursday -- in the series opener against Miami, and move Roark up to Thursday to face the Mets on his normal five days' rest.
Considering Strasburg's stature and the importance of the Mets series, that's not likely to happen. Then again, given Roark's blossoming ichthyophobia, it's not a completely crazy idea.
