Marlins fall in Cincinnati after Jose’s short start

CINCINNATI — A well-rested Jose Fernandez was unable to slow down the Reds on Thursday night. Ramon Cabrera belted a three-run home run off the All-Star right-hander, and Dan Straily gave up two runs in six innings as Cincinnati was able to hold off the Marlins, 5-4, at Great American Ball Park.

After dropping the series opener, 6-3, on Monday night, the Reds ran off three straight wins, further damaging the Marlins’ positioning in the National League Wild Card standings. Miami, which fell to 2 1/2 games behind St. Louis, is now 5-11 in August. Fernandez was tagged for five runs on seven hits in four innings.

As part of the plan to keep Fernandez around 180 innings on the season, the All-Star was skipped a start, and he pitched on nine days’ rest Thursday. The hard-throwing right-hander looked rested, but not sharp, and the four innings marked his shortest start since going four on April 11, 2014, at Philadelphia.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t give my team a chance to win today. I’m not happy about that,” Fernandez said. “I was probably a little out of timing, but there is nothing you can do. Get ready for your next start, and just come back and give your boys a chance to win. That’s baseball.”

Cabrera’s three-run blast to right field gave the Reds a lead in the second and provided Straily with some breathing room. Cincinnati tacked on two more runs in the third, with the speed of Billy Hamilton being a factor. Hamilton drew a throw from Marcell Ozuna after the center fielder ran down Brandon Phillips’ liner. When Ozuna’s throw skipped away from third baseman Martin Prado, no one was backing up the play, and Hamilton scored from second. Eugenio Suarez’s RBI double made it 5-0.

“We took advantage of some of the early strikes he threw in the count and didn’t get deep in the count because he has the paralyzing slider. But you know what? He throws 100 [mph], too,” Reds manager Bryan Price said of Fernandez. “It’s not like he was a guy who was ‘oh well,’ and easing it in there and don’t get to two strikes because of the slider. He was throwing 100 mph and looked like a million bucks.”

The Marlins rallied back to make it a one-run game. Ozuna hit a two-run homer off Straily in the sixth, and in the seventh inning, Prado laced a two-run single off Jumbo Diaz, with both …

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