Eighth inning rally carries Marlins past Tigers in series opener. Takeaways from the win
For the first time on this side of the All-Star Break, the Miami Marlins have won back-to-back games.
And with MLB’s trade deadline just days away, the Marlins’ push to right the ship after a season-long losing streak is coming at just the right time.
The Marlins defeated the Detroit Tigers 6-5 on Friday to begin a three-game series at loanDepot park. The win is Miami’s third in the past four games after dropping the first eight games they played coming back from the All-Star Break. The Marlins improve to 56-48 on the season, while the Tigers fall to 46-58.
Miami led 4-0 early before the Tigers chipped away, tying the game in the top of the eighth. The Marlins responded with a two-run bottom of the eighth to take the lead for good.
“There’s no such thing as an ugly win,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “There are ugly losses, but I will take any win when there’s a game that’s close.”
Here are three takeaways from the game.
Small ball leads the way in the eighth
After the Marlins saw their lead disappear in the top of the eighth, the lineup went to a small-ball approach to retake the lead.
They pushed across the go-ahead run by leading off the inning with three consecutive singles, capped by Jon Berti slicing a Jason Foley sinker past first baseman Spencer Torkelson to score Garrett Hampson, who was pinch-running at second base for Jesus Sanchez. Joey Wendle then hit a sacrifice fly that scored Yuli Gurriel, who moved from first to third on Berti’s single.
Berti went 2 for 4 on Friday to push his batting average on the season to .300.
Prior to the eighth inning, Bryan De La Cruz opened scoring with a two-run home run in the first and added an RBI single in the third. Jean Segura accounted for Miami’s other run with an RBI single in the second.
Braxton Garrett caps rough July on strong note
Left-handed pitcher Braxton Garrett entered Friday looking to close out a July to forget on a high note.
He did just that.
Garrett pitched six strong innings against the Tigers on Friday, holding Detroit to just one unearned run on five hits, a walk and a hit by pitch while striking out six.
It was the first time since June 22 against the Pittsburgh Pirates that Garrett completed six innings.
And it was the first time all month that Garrett gave up no more than one run in a start. Garrett had a 7.85 ERA (16 earned runs over 18 1/3 innings) in his first four starts in July, giving up at least three runs and going no more than 5 2/3 innings in any of those outings.
Bullpen woes continue
The Marlins spent the past few days attempting to fortify their bullpen with the acquisitions of right-handed pitchers Jorge Lopez from the Minnesota Twins and David Robertson from the New York Mets.
While Miami ultimately won with A.J. Puk picking up his team-leading 16th save, Friday’s outing was the latest to show why Miami needed reliever help after the Marlins saw a three-run lead disappear over the span of just two innings.
After Garrett exiting following his six innings with a 4-1 lead, Huascar Brazoban gave up just one hit (a soft groundball down the third-base line) among the three batters he faced before Schumaker turned to Tanner Scott, who issued a walk to Riley Greene and RBI single to Torkelson to cut Miami’s advantage to 4-2.
Scott limited the damage to just the one run in the seventh before giving up a one-out infield single to Javier Baez. Scott was injured on the play, sustaining a right calf strain trying to cover first base.
JT Chargois then entered for Scott and gave up a two-out walk and a game-tying two-run double to Nick Maton to tie the game at 4-4.
Puk closed the game but not without his own struggles. He gave up a run on an Andy Ibanez one-out RBI single before striking out Eric Haase and Baez to seal the win.
This story was originally published July 28, 2023 at 9:21 PM.
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