Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
CLUTCH WIN
Anderson’s single in 9th inning drives in deciding run
Base hit in bottom of 9th lifts Marlins past Padres.
MIAMI —It has been a strange up-and-down week for the Miami Marlins.
In their first game against the San Diego Padres on Tuesday, they exploded for 12 runs, but 24 hours later, they couldn’t even get a hit until the eighth inning and went down without putting up much of a fight.
It wasn’t clear which version of Miami would show up for the final game of the series Thursday.
The team didn’t have a problem getting hits this time, but it took until the last possible moment to win, with a hit from Brian Anderson driving in Yadiel Rivera to give the Marlins a 4-3 victory in the bottom of the ninth.
“It was time for us to win close games,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “The games that we’re in that are tied late or one run ahead or one run behind, we got to start being able to win some of those games. We were able to do it this series.”
The Marlins fell behind early thanks to a strong second inning from the Padres, who got three of their first four batters on base with just one out. A deep fly ball from Austin Hedges bought enough time for Hunter Renfroe to score, turning it into a sacrifice fly and putting Miami behind 1-0.
But unlike Wednesday night, the Marlins were able to respond right away. The Padres failed to secure what should have been an easy out at second base thanks to a throwing error by Hedges, opening the door for Jorge Alfaro to score and tie the game up at 1-1.
Miami took the lead moments later after Neil Walker fired a ball that landed just inside the foul line in right field, driving in Cesar Puello and earning a double for himself. The Marlins padded their lead a couple innings later when Harold Ramirez blasted the ball into the stands behind right field in the bottom of the fourth to put his team up by two.
But the Padres closed the gap with a home run of their own just one inning later, when Fernando Tatis Jr. fired off a 402-foot homer out of center field that cut the gap to a single run. San Diego came close to adding to that lead a few minutes later, but Puello made an impressive catch at the wall in center field that ended the inning and prevented what could have been a huge play for the Padres.
But Miami slipped up again in the top of the sixth, allowing Francisco Mejia to single to center field and drive in Margot, tying the game up at 3-3.
The next few innings turned into a stalemate, with both teams fighting to break through with a run, and both coming up short. Finally, in the bottom of the ninth, the Marlins prevailed.
Anderson whacked a ground ball down the leftfield line, driving in Rivera to win it for Miami.
“Today was a good game, a hard-fought game,” Anderson said. “Being able to come out on top there and finally put one up for our pitchers right there was awesome.”
The Marlins will head out on the road to face the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night at 10:10 p.m.