Marlins beat D-Backs
MIAMI – NL RBI leader Jesús Aguilar delivered a tiebreaking single in a sixrun eighth after Richard Bleier struck out the side with the bases loaded in the top of the inning, and the Miami Marlins beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 9-3 on Tuesday night.
The score was 3-all when Miguel Rojas led off the eighth with a double against Kevin Ginkel (01), and Rojas came home on Aguilar’s single. Corey Dickerson followed with an infield single, and catcher Stephen Vogt’s throwing error allowed Aguilar to score all the way from first.
Lewis Brinson hit a three-run homer off Alex Young to complete the scoring for the Marlins, who totaled four runs while being swept last weekend in a three-game series at Washington.
“We’ve been struggling, but we swung the bats good tonight,” manager Don Mattingly said. “There were a lot of balls we hit right on the nose that were right at people.”
Arizona briefly pulled even in the top of the eighth on Eduardo Escobar’s RBI single, and catcher Sandy León mishandled a bunt for Miami’s third error, loading the bases with none out. Bleier (2-0) came out of the bullpen and struck out Josh Rojas, Wyatt Mathisen and Pavin Smith.
“It’s almost like there’s no pressure, because it’s such a tough situation,” Bleier said. “Not a high conversion rate. I’m going for weak contact there, but strikeouts, I’ll take them, too.
“We kind of carried that into that big next inning and really opened it up.”
Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo acknowledged the momentum from their perspective.
“There was just a natural letdown,” he said. “We had what we expected to be a real big inning . ... You anticipate something happening, and it doesn’t.”
Arizona went 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10.
Miami’s Brian Anderson hit a three-run homer in his first at-bat after coming off the injured list. Anderson, sidelined the past two weeks with a strained left oblique, hit his second homer of the season in the first inning off Riley Smith.
“That was big, going out and finding the barrel right out of the gate,” Anderson said. “Seeing one not get caught was good for me.”
Those were the only runs allowed by Riley Smith, who worked five innings in his third career start.
Sandy Alcantara yielded one earned run in six innings for the Marlins and lowered his ERA to 2.95.