Marlins rally against Pirates to back Braxton Garrett’s career night. Takeaways from win
The Miami Marlins rallied for five runs in the eighth inning to back Braxton Garrett’s stellar start and beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-4 on Thursday at loanDepot park to begin a four-game series.
The Marlins improve to 43-33 on the season and have 21 come-from-behind victories and six wins when trailing after seven innings. The Pirates fall to 34-40 and have now lost 10 consecutive games.
“When you come from behind and win early in the season, you know you can do it in the middle of the season or late in the season. There’s no panic,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “If you’ve never done it before, you’re just like, ‘Oh man, here we go again.’ Instead, that room is thinking ‘Just get a guy on and something is going to happen.’ We did, and it’s exactly what happens. Do I like being down in the eighth and ninth inning? No. But it’s pretty special to come back and win like we have been.”
Here are three takeaways from the game.
Garrett Cooper caps rally
First baseman Garrett Cooper punctuated the Marlins’ comeback with a three-run home run to straightaway center field in the eighth inning against Pirates reliever Carmen Mlodzinski.
Cooper lifted a 96.6 mph four-seam fastball that was just 1.34 feet above the ground and sent it a projected 413 feet.
The home run, Cooper’s ninth of the season, came after each of the Marlins’ first four hitters in the inning reached base. Jonathan Davis led off with a double, Luis Arraez drew a walk and Jorge Soler hit a single to load the bases before Bryan De La Cruz hit a two-run single to cut Miami’s deficit to 4-3. Jesus Sanchez then moved Soler and De La Cruz up 90 feet before Cooper blasted the go-ahead home run.
Before Miami’s offense struck against the Pirates’ bullpen, the Marlins managed just one run on five hits against Pirates starter Mitch Keller.
That lone run came in the second inning when a Joey Wendle sacrifice fly scored Cooper, who hit a one-out double and moved to third base on a Jon Berti infield single. That was the only time the Marlins had a runner in scoring position during the game.
Cooper went 3 for 4 on Thursday, finishing a triple shy of the cycle.
Braxton Garrett continues to impress
The late heroics from the offense backed what was arguably the best start of Garrett’s young MLB career.
The 25-year-old left-handed pitcher struck out a career-high 13 batters over a season-long seven innings of work while allowing just two runs (one earned run) against the Pirates. It’s the most strikeouts in a game by a Marlins pitcher this season.
Prior to Thursday, Garrett’s single-game career-high for strikeouts was 11, done twice last season (Aug. 2 against the Cincinnati Reds and July 14 against the Pirates). Thursday was also just the third time in Garrett’s career that he pitched at least seven innings.
Of his 13 strikeouts, six came on the slider, five on the sinker and two on the cutter — the latter of which is the newest pitch in Garrett’s arsenal which he began throwing this season.
In his past eight starts, Garrett has held opponents to a 2.00 ERA, giving up 10 earned runs over 45 innings, with a staggering 62 strikeouts against eight walks in that span. He has held opponents to no more than two earned runs in seven of those eight starts.
The only runs he gave up on Thursday came in a three-batter sequence in the fourth — all with two outs. Connor Joe hit a single to left-center field for Pittsburgh’s first hit of the game and then scored on a Carlos Santana double to center field. Santana then stole third base during Rodolfo Castro’s ensuing at-bat and scored on a Nick Fortes throwing error to give the Pirates a 2-1 lead.
Pittsburgh tacked on a pair of runs in the eighth when Henry Davis, the No. 43 prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline, and Ke’Bryan Hayes hit solo home runs off reliever Andrew Nardi before the offense rallied.
A.J. Puk then pitched a scoreless ninth inning for his team-leading 10th save of the season.
Luis Arraez batting average update
Arraez went 1 for 3 on Thursday, hitting a leadoff single in the sixth and drawing a walk in the decisive eighth inning.
His batting average on the season is .397.
Prior to the game, Arraez advanced to Phase 2 of MLB All-Star Game fan voting, which determines the starting position players for the 2023 MLB All-Star Game on July 11 at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park.
Arraez will now go head-to-head with the Atlanta Braves’ Ozzie Albies for the NL’s starting second base spot.
Phase 2 voting begins Monday at noon and runs through June 29 at noon. Fans can only vote one time per day this time around at MLB.com, compared to five times per day during the initial round. Vote totals from Phase 1 do not carry over to Phase 2.
The All-Star starters will be announced on June 29 at 7 p.m. on ESPN.
This story was originally published June 22, 2023 at 8:59 PM.
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