Marlins start homestand with a much-needed four-run comeback and wild win vs. Rockies
The Miami Marlins returned from their 10-game, three-city road trip with one prevailing, deeply unsatisfying takeaway.
“It could have been better,” manager Don Mattingly said. “It could have been worse.”
They played two division rivals and two of the best teams in MLB, won four and lost six. They sat around the edges of the MLB postseason picture when they went on the road and still sat there when they returned home Tuesday to begin a six-game homestand with three against the Colorado Rockies.
With less than a month until the 2022 MLB All-Star Game and only a few weeks more until the trade deadline, the Marlins need to start making a move soon if they’re going to seriously challenge for the 2022 MLB postseason. Their 9-8 win, then, was a much-needed victory, especially considering the sort of comeback it took and the tug-of-war they battled through.
Miami (30-36) trailed 4-0 in the middle of the fourth inning and had just one hit through three innings against Rockies starting pitcher Ryan Feltner, and then, in the span of just four pitches, the Marlins turned a 4-0 deficit into a 4-4 tie. Later, they let an 8-5 lead of their own slip away after a costly error by slugger Garrett Cooper led to three unearned runs, and finally pulled out a win when backup catcher Nick Fortes led off the bottom of the eighth with a double and scored on another double by Cooper.
“Where should we start?” Mattingly said. “It’s good to get a win, however you get it.”
For Miami, it started with back-to-back home runs by Avisail Garcia and Jesus Sanchez in the bottom of the fourth inning. The outfielders homered four pitches apart and a 4-0 deficit quickly turned into a 4-4 tie and, soon after, a 5-4 lead in front of 9,012 at loanDepot park.
It meant the Marlins never trailed again, even though Colorado (30-38) rallied to tie the game 5-5 in the top of the fifth and 8-8 in the top of the sixth, and quickly made up for a shaky outing from fill-in starting pitcher Daniel Castano, who gave up four runs in just 3 1/3 innings.
Sanchez was right in the middle of both of Miami’s biggest innings, with game-tying home run in the fourth and a go-ahead one-out single in the fifth. Later in the fifth, Sanchez scored when shortstop Miguel Rojas singled and got caught in a rundown to buy the 24-year-old Dominican a little bit of extra time.
After he and first baseman Jesus Aguilar spent the weekend on the injured list for reasons related to COVID-19, Sanchez gave the Marlins a spark they lacked when they lost 3 of 4 to the rival New York Mets.
They’ve now scored at least five runs in 11 of 20 games in June.
At the center of Miami’s playoff hopes are crafty starting pitchers Sandy Alcantara and Pablo Lopez, who have combined for a 2.21 ERA in 150 innings so far this year. At the center of Miami’s playoff hopes are crafty starting pitchers Sandy Alcantara and Pablo Lopez, who have combined for 2.21 ERA in 150 innings so far this year. Secondary, however, has been its improved offense, which is better than league average — in terms of runs per game — for the first time since 2017.
Part of their success has to do with the emergence of star middle infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr., who’s currently the National League’s leading vote-getter at second base for the 2022 MLB All-Star Game. More of it has to do with the lineup depth the Marlins have built. After all, Chisholm wasn’t even in the lineup Tuesday, getting a day off.
“You just try to put together some big ABs with some runners in scoring position,” Cooper said. “We didn’t do that this weekend in New York.”
In the top of the eighth, Miami’s depth came through, with Fortes, the No. 9 hitter, getting himself into scoring position on the fourth pitch of the inning, and coming around to score after a flyout by speedy utility man Jon Berti and a game-winning hit by Cooper, who wasn’t even guaranteed to be an everyday starter at the beginning of the year and now leads the Marlins in on-base-plus-slugging percentage.
It made up for his three-run error in the sixth, but the wackiness still wasn’t over. Tanner Scott started the top of the ninth by throwing three straight balls, prompting pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre to come out and talk things over with the relief pitcher.
Scott responded with 11 straight strikes and Miami escaped with a wild win to open another crucial homestand.
“I don’t know what he dialed up,” Mattingly joked, “but we’ve got to bottle that.”
This story was originally published June 21, 2022 at 10:25 PM.
