‘Young, hungry’ Marlins rally to an Opening Day win — and give manager celebration to remember
Clayton McCullough won’t forget his first Opening Day as a Major League Baseball manager.
He watched as the Miami Marlins he is now tasked with leading rally from a three-run deficit for a 5-4, walk-off win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday at loanDepot park in front of an announced crowd of 31,534 —the first ever walk-off win on Opening Day in franchise history. His bullpen kept the game close after ace Sandy Alcantara ran out of gas after 4 2/3 innings in his first start in more than 18 months, and then the offense strung together clutch hits down the stretch, capped by Kyle Stowers’ walk-off single down the right field line in the ninth inning.
He also won’t forget the celebration that took place afterward. It started intimate, with a champagne toast inside the clubhouse.
And then...
“We gave him a nasty shower,” outfielder Dane Myers said. “We threw him in the [laundry] cart, went to the shower and covered him in some shaving cream, mustard, anything you could think of.”
“It was probably the most memorable shower I’ve had in a long time,” McCullough added. “It was a cool moment. I really appreciate the group in there recognizing that. Great for me with the first win, but I think more for our group, what a really nice team effort to hang in there.”
They played to the style McCullough hoped they would play after watching them throughout spring training. This is a young Marlins team — no one is older than 30, 21 of the 26 on the active roster have fewer than two years of service time, 17 were experiencing their first Opening Day as big leaguers — and the way this team is going to win is to scratch and claw for anything it can.
“That’s exactly who we are to a tee,” said catcher Nick Fortes, who at 28 years old and in his fifth big-league season is a de-facto veteran on this Marlins squad. “It’s a bunch of young, hungry, athletic guys, and we’re not gonna give up because we’ve got nothing to lose. We know we’re talented, so, yeah, we’re gonna go out there and give it our all every night.”
They did just that Thursday.
Miami took an early 1-0 lead on an Xavier Edwards RBI fielder’s choice in the third inning against Pirates ace Paul Skenes. At that point, Alcantara was cruising, but after 4 2/3 innings of no-hit ball, Alcantara’s outing ended with four consecutive Pirates reaching base, capped by a Bryan Reynolds two-run single that gave Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead.
The Pirates then doubled their run total on a two-run home run from Nick Gonzalez against Lake Bachar in the sixth before Miami mounted its comeback.
The Marlins cut their deficit to two runs when Edwards scored on a passed ball in the bottom of the sixth. George Soriano then threw two scoreless innings out of the bullpen before before Otto Lopez and Myers then tied the game in the eighth with back-to-back two-out RBI singles against Colin Holderman.
“It can kind of identify us as a team that’s going to be tough and gritty and never give up at any point in the game,” Myers said.
Jesus Tinoco worked around a pair of baserunners for a scoreless top of the ninth to put Miami in position for the walk-off.
Fortes led off the inning with a triple — just the second of his MLB career — to put the winning run 90 feet away. Utilityman Javier Sanoja then pinch-ran for Fortes. The Pirates intentionally walked Edwards to bring up Stowers, who sent an elevated fastball from All-Star closer David Bednar on an 0-2 count to right field to seal the win.
“That’s what you want out of any team is just a team that has fight and grit, especially late in the game off of tough pitchers,” Stowers said. “Obviously, everyone they brought out today from Skenes on was really good, all of them. That’s the big leagues. You face good pitching. And so you’ve gotta be a type of group that can battle through that and and find a way to come out with these wins. It’s great to do it on Day 1, and we’ve just got to keep stringing together those types of days.”
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