Marlins rally late to take series opener over Cardinals. Takeaways from the wins
Make that another comeback win for the Miami Marlins.
The Marlins erased a late deficit with a three-run seventh inning to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-4 on Monday to begin a four-game series at loanDepot park.
Miami improves to 49-37 on the season, including 20-5 in one-run games, and now has 23 come-from-behind wins this season. The Cardinals fall to 35-49.
The win comes on the heels of the Marlins getting swept by the National League-leading Atlanta Braves. Miami knew it couldn’t afford to let the losses in Atlanta linger as it started its final homestand ahead of the All-Star Break.
“We needed that win,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “We needed to stop the bleeding and good teams stop the bleeding. They don’t continue the streak.”
Here are three takeaways from the game.
Yuli Gurriel needs one pitch to tie the game
The Marlins had runners on first and second with one out in the seventh inning when the Cardinals went to their bullpen. Out came Miles Mikolas, who was cruising before giving up back-to-back walks. In came right-handed pitcher Andre Pallante with the potential go-ahead run at the plate.
Schumaker, knowing Pallante had reverse splits (right-handed hitters had an .843 OPS against him entering Monday, compared to .646 for left-handed hitters), opted to have right-handed-hitter Yuli Gurriel pinch-hit for left-handed-hitter Joey Wendle.
The move worked.
Gurriel swung at the first pitch he saw, a near middle-middle 97.7 mph four-seam fastball, and sliced it into right field for a double that scored Garrett Cooper and Jean Segura and tie the game at 4-4 before being replaced by pinch-runner Jon Berti.
One at-bat later, Nick Fortes gave Miami a lead by hitting another fastball to almost the exact same location for an RBI single.
“We prepared the guys before the game that if Pallante came in against a lefty to be ready,” Schumaker said. “Credit to Yuli and Berti, they were ready. Huge hit obviously with men on base and two runs score. Fortes gets a nice hit. Berti told me to pinch-run him. Berti pinch-ran, so that’s credit to Berti.”
It was a needed spark for Marlins, who tagged Mikolas for two runs in the span of their four batters before Mikolas faced the minimum for a span of 18 batters. Mikolas allowed just one baserunner in that stretch, a one-out single from Fortes in the second that was erased with a strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play.
Luis Arraez led off the bottom of the first with an infield single before Jorge Soler hit a double to left to put runners on second and third. A Bryan De La Cruz RBI groundout then opened scored before Jesus Sanchez doubled Miami’s lead to 2-0 with an RBI double.
Another win in a Braxton Garrett start
Left-handed pitcher Braxton Garrett held the Cardinals to three earned runs on seven hits over 5 2/3 innings while striking out six.
Garrett effectively mixed in all of his pitches, throwing his slider 26 times, his cutter and sinker 25 times apiece and sprinkling in 11 curveballs along with a couple changeups. He got Cardinals hitters to whiff on 11 of their 45 swings.
The Marlins are now 9-1 in Garrett’s past 10 starts and 13-3 overall when he starts this season.
Gutsy finish by relievers Scott, Puk
With the Marlins holding a one-run lead after the seventh-inning rally, Schumaker handed the ball to two of his most trusted relievers for the final two innings.
Things got shaky at times, but Tanner Scott and A.J. Puk shut down the Cardinals to seal the win.
Scott worked around a one-out single and hit-by-pitch by getting Lars Nootbaar to fly out to right field and striking out Tommy Edman for a scoreless eighth inning.
Puk allowed a leadoff single to Paul Goldschmidt in the ninth before getting Nolan Arenado to pop out, striking out Willson Contreras and Nolan Gorman to ground out to shortstop for his team-leading 14th save.
This story was originally published July 3, 2023 at 9:18 PM.
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