Marlins rally late but lose series finale in extras on Athletics walk-off
.JPG "Oakland Athletics’ Jonah Bride, left, is tagged out at home by Miami Marlins catcher Nick Fortes during the sixth inning of a baseball game in Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)")
For the first time all series, the Miami Marlins found themselves trailing the Oakland Athletics.
They rallied late to tie the game, only to fall 3-2 in 10 innings and in walk-off fashion at RingCentral Coliseum on Wednesday to drop the series finale. Miami won the first two games of the series 3-0 on Monday and 5-3 on Tuesday.
The Marlins are now 54-70, including 20-27 in one-run games and 7-5 in extra-inning games. The Athletics improve to 46-79.
This was the eighth time this season Miami has been walked off and the first since July 9 against the New York Mets.
David McKinnon, Oakland’s automatic runner at second base in the bottom of the 10th, reached third on a Richard Bleier wild pitch and scored on a Skye Bolt leadoff sacrifice fly to center field.
“Obviously when you win the first two, you want to [sweep] the series,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “Disappointing, these kind of games.”
Trailing 2-0, Miami broke up the shutout in the eighth inning when Miguel Rojas’ two-out single drove in Peyton Burdick, who had reached on a fielder’s choice and stole second.
Nick Fortes tied the game with a solo home run in the ninth inning — his seventh of the season — to force extra innings.
“Nothing really changes in my approach,” said Fortes, who had two hits Wednesday. “I felt like I had good swings all day and was seeing it well. I just kind of wanted to stick with what I’ve been doing the whole game.”
Prior to that, Oakland starter Cole Irvin had held the Marlins to just three hits over seven shutout innings with 11 strikeouts.
All of Oakland’s damage before the walkoff came in the sixth inning against Jesus Luzardo, who began the game with five no-hit innings in his first start against Oakland since being traded to the Marlins last year.
Jonah Bride hit a first-pitch single to shallow left field and moved to second on a Tony Kemp sacrifice bunt before a Nick Allen single put runners on the corners with one out. Bride was tagged out at home on a Shea Langeliers ground ball to Jon Berti at third base, who threw to Fortes at home plate to get the lead runner and get Luzardo one out away from escaping the jam.
But a nine-pitch walk to Sean Murphy loaded the bases and a Chad Pinder single down the first-base line and into right field scored Allen and Langeliers.
“That’s baseball,” Luzardo said of the sixth inning. “If they came out and banged me off the wall a couple times, I’d be a little more frustrated probably. ... They found ways to make it work and they scored without necessarily needing to square it up.”
Before that inning, Luzardo’s only blemish was a two-out walk to Kemp in the third inning.
Overall, Luzardo tied a career high with seven innings pitched and struck out four. In five starts since his return from the injured list, Luzardo has a 2.67 ERA with 28 strikeouts against seven walks with a .176 batting average against over 30 1/3 innings. He has pitched at least five innings in every start, gone seven innings twice and held opponents to two earned runs or fewer in four of the five outings.
It was the latest solid outing by a Marlins pitcher this series. Edward Cabrera threw eight shutout innings on Monday and Pablo Lopez followed with six shutout innings of his own on Tuesday.
Marlins pitchers in August have a combined 3.39 ERA, the seventh-best mark in MLB.
“I wanted to come out here and follow the trend,” Luzardo said. “This was a good series, a step in the right direction.”
Up next
The Marlins are off Thursday before beginning a four-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers at loanDepot park on Friday. The Dodgers swept the Marlins last weekend in Los Angeles.
Miami does not have a named starter for the series opener on Friday but Sandy Alcantara (11-6, 2.19 ERA) is scheduled for Saturday, Edward Cabrera (4-1, 1.41) for Sunday and Pablo Lopez (8-8, 3.66) for Monday.
After that, Miami hosts the Tampa Bay Rays for two games to wrap up the homestand.
This story was originally published August 24, 2022 at 6:18 PM.
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