Bats sputtering vs. starters’ changing speeds

PHILADELPHIA — Strong outings from Jose Fernandez and Jose Urena in Monday’s and Tuesday’s games, respectively, masked a Marlins offense that was hitting just .138 (5-for-36) against Phillies starters.

But Miami was exposed in Wednesday’s 4-1 loss, as Jeremy Hellickson cruised over eight innings of one-run ball. Wei-Yin Chen turned in Miami’s shortest start of the series, lasting just 5 1/3 innings and surrendering all four Phillies runs.

“It felt a lot like the first game, really,” manager Don Mattingly said. “Kinda just got handcuffed all night offensively. We’d been able to win two out of three but really hadn’t scored that many runs.”

The only runs the Marlins have mustered in three games against Aaron Nola, Vince Velasquez and Hellickson have come from a pair of solo home runs. Take away those, and they’ve scattered eight hits that amounted to zero runs over 21 of the 30 innings played through the first three games of the series.

In the nine innings against the Phillies’ bullpen, it has been a little better, but they’ve continued to scrape the bottom of the barrel in search of offense, scoring a run off David Hernandez on Tuesday and three …

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