Miami Marlins strike in fifth inning to beat Mariners, win seventh consecutive game
It took until the fifth inning — and it took a balance of patience and aggressive approaches — but the Miami Marlins’ offense was finally able to break through against the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner on Saturday to keep their win streak alive.
Miami sent nine batters to the plate and scored three runs against Robbie Ray in that fifth inning to break up their shutout and spark the Marlins to a 3-1 win over the Seattle Mariners at loanDepot park. The Marlins have now won seven consecutive games and, at 12-8 overall, posted a winning record in April for the first time since 2016. Seattle dropped to 11-10.
The final tally for the Marlins in that key inning: three hits, three walks and 36 pitches seen, enough to knock Ray out of the game after that frame.
“In that inning,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said, “we were able to lay off some stuff. It kind of seemed to wear him down a little bit.”
The all-righty lineup pulls through
Mattingly rolled out an all-right-handed-hitting lineup against the lefty Ray. It’s the third time Mattingly has done this in four games against left-handed starting pitching. The reasoning on Saturday was two-fold.
First: It continues Miami’s trend of maximizing matchups both at the start and later in the game. It worked the last time they did it on Thursday, when Mattingly played nine righties against Washingtion Nationals lefty Patrick Corbin. Once Corbin was removed from the game and a right-handed reliever entered, Mattingly went to his bench and used a pair of left-handed hitters. Jesus Sanchez produced the go-ahead hit in a two-run inning.
Second: The Marlins are five games into a stretch of 16 consecutive games without a day off. Miami’s depth allows Mattingly to rotate players in and out of the lineup to give them rest days without having to sacrifice lineup production.
“We want to be able to take care of guys,” Mattingly said. “Guys know that everybody’s in the mix. ... Everybody’s got a role on our club, and I think that’s better for me and our staff when the pieces fit. Everybody has something that we expect from them and they know over time they’re all part of it.”
The pieces fit on Saturday, and it showed in the fifth inning.
Brian Anderson, who has started 15 of 20 games this season while splitting time at three positions (third base, left field and right field), started the rally with a leadoff ground-rule double that bounced into Miami’s bullpen in left field. He moved to third on a Miguel Rojas flyout and scored on a Bryan De La Cruz ground-ball single past shortstop J.P. Crawford and into right field to tie the game at 1-1.
A Payton Henry walk moved De La Cruz to second base. De La Cruz, starting just his fifth game of the season, scored two pitches later on Jon Berti’s single to right field to give the Marlins their first lead of the game.
“It means all for me to have that opportunity and that performance,” De La Cruz said of being involved in the plays that produced the game-tying and go-ahead runs. “Every time I go to the field, I truly give my 110 percent. That’s what I do.”
After a Jesus Aguilar strikeout, Ray walked Jorge Soler and Garrett Cooper in consecutive plate appearances with two outs to force in Miami’s third and final run of the frame.
The Marlins overall drew five walks on Saturday. Their 77 walks are tied for the sixth-most in MLB and has contributed heavily to their .325 on-base percentage that is the eighth-best in the league.
Rotation continues to impress
It backed up a quality start from Jesus Luzardo, who gave up just one run — a solo home run to Dylan Moore in the third — while striking out five over six innings. Luzardo’s fourth strikeout of the night was the 200th of his MLB career.
Through four starts, Luzardo has a 3.10 ERA with 38 strikeouts against nine walks over 20 1/3 innings and has held opponents to one run in three of his four outings. Opponents are hitting just .178 against him.
Through four turns in the rotation, Marlins starters have put together a 3.03 ERA — the sixth-lowest in the league.
“We pitch really well as a group,” Luzardo said. “Having Sandy [Alcantara] and Pablo [Lopez] at the front doing their thing makes it easier on the guys in the back. Just kind of following them and we kind of feed of each other.”
Anthony Bass, Cole Sulser and Anthony Bender pitched the final three innings Saturday, with Bender recording his sixth save of the season and fourth in a row.
Up next
The series finale is Sunday, with first pitch set for 1:40 p.m. Sandy Alcantara (2-0, 1.78 ERA) starts on the mound for the Marlins, while Logan Gilbert (3-0, 0.40) goes for the Mariners. Miami is looking for its second consecutive series sweep after winning all three games against the Washington Nationals.
This story was originally published April 30, 2022 at 8:56 PM.
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