Jesus Sanchez’s plan: ‘Just hit the ball.’ The result: Marlins’ first walk-off of the season

Jesus Sanchez understood the situation.

Ninth inning. No outs. Winning run on third base. There were five defenders in the infield, two in the outfield.

Even when he fell behind in the count 0-2, his plan of attack didn’t change.

“Just hit the ball,” the Miami Marlins’ center fielder said.

Two pitches later, he hit the ball.

And after Sanchez helped the Marlins rally in the fifth, he walked it off in the ninth.

Sanchez’s lifted an elevated Tyler Rogers slider to deep center field for a sacrifice fly to lift the Marlins to a 5-4, walk-off victory over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday at loanDepot park. It was the Marlins’ first walk-off victory of the season and Sanchez’s first career walk-off RBI. Miami improves to 22-29, while San Francisco falls to 28-24.

Sanchez’s teammates swarmed him in the infield after Luke Williams scored the game-winning run, dousing him with water and placing a white football helmet that has the Marlins’ current logo on the sides, the franchise’s original logo on the top and the Sugar Kings logo they wear on home Saturdays with their City Connect jerseys on the back.

“These wins are good for you,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “The ability to come back is huge.”

Jesus Aguilar led off the ninth inning with an infield single on a hard-hit groundball to shortstop Brandon Crawford. Williams then replaced Aguilar as a pinch-runner. Avisail Garcia was then hit by a pitch on a full count to put runners on first and second. Both runners then advanced 90 feet on a balk before Sanchez’s sacrifice fly.

Williams’ immediate thought after touching home plate?

“Just bolt for Jesus,” Williams said. “He did most of the work. I just waited for the ball to get caught and ran.”

It’s the latest moment in what Sanchez and the Marlins hope is a breakthrough.

The outfielder slumped through most of May, hitting just .145 (10 for 69) with one RBI and 25 strikeouts over the first 22 games he played that month.

Sanchez is on a six-game hitting streak since then, starting with the Marlins’ series finale against the Atlanta Braves on May 29. He is hitting .364 with three home runs — including two towering shots against the Colorado Rockies — seven RBI and five runs scored in those half-dozen games.

“It’s just a working process,” Sanchez said. “It’s not like I have my 100 percent confidence right there, but it’s a working process.”

Mattingly added: “Sanchi obviously had a tough May. It was tough on him. ... Sent into a tailspin and he never really recovered for a while. He’s just starting to get back where we want him to be.”

It was the final moment needed after the Marlins climbed out of an early deficit.

After getting shut out through the first four innings with Giants starter Logan Webb holding them to one run and one hit in that span, the Marlins used a four-run fifth inning to tie the game.

Garcia led off the frame with a single to left and scored on a Sanchez double that hit off the wall in left-center field. A Jon Berti single then put runners on the corners.

Berti proceeded to steal second and Sanchez made it home when second baseman Donovan Walton dropped a low throw from catcher Joey Bart to cut the deficit to two runs. A Jacob Stallings groundout advanced Berti to third and Jazz Chisholm Jr. drew a two-out walk and stole second to put the game-tying runs in scoring position and chase Webb from the game.

Garrett Cooper then uncorked a full-count fastball to right field for a two-run, game-tying single. It was Cooper’s second hit of the day.

“Just hanging in there,” Mattingly said of the offense’s fifth-inning approach against Webb. “That guy’s nasty. His stuff is electric. ... We scrapped and got some guys on.”

The inning negated the four runs Pablo Lopez gave up during his seven innings of work on Saturday.

The Giants opened scoring with a Jason Vosler solo home run in the third before Lopez ran into real trouble an inning later. He gave up a double to Joc Pederson and back-to-back walks to Thairo Estrada to load the bases with one out in the fourth before Walton drove all three home with a double to left field.

“I got away from myself,” Lopez said of the fourth inning. “I became a little too careful, a little too picky because it’s a 1-0 game.”

Lopez retired the final 11 batters after the Walton double to get through at least seven innings for the fifth time in 11 starts this season while throwing a career-high 110 pitches. His season ERA is 2.18, third-best in the National League behind the San Diego Padres’ Joe Musgrove (1.64) and Marlins teammate Sandy Alcantara (1.81).

“I really appreciate the trust [Mattingly] put in me today, letting me go out there for the sixth and seventh innings,” said Lopez, who was up to 78 pitches after four innings but needed just 32 for his final three innings of work. “It just felt great. It’s just one of those things knowing that you have the trust when you’re at that point. It’s one of those things that hypes you up to go out there and put a zero on the board.”

Steven Okert pitched a perfect eighth inning and Tanner Scott pitched a scoreless ninth. Scott worked around a one-out Crawford double after neither Garcia nor Sanchez fielded the ball on the warning track in right-center on a miscommunication by striking out Estrada and getting Walton to pop out to Chisholm to set the stage for the walk-off win.

This story was originally published June 4, 2022 at 7:05 PM.

Jordan McPherson

Miami Herald

305-376-2129

Jordan McPherson covers the Miami Hurricanes and Florida Panthers for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and covered the Gators athletic program for five years before joining the Herald staff in December 2017.