South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Record scoreless streak ends during rout
Joey Wendle had three hits and two RBIs, Braxton Garrett pitched six sharp innings and the Miami Marlins emphatically ended their 37-inning scoreless streak by beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-1 on Friday night.
The Marlins were shut out by Philadelphia in three straight games last weekend at home leading up to the All-Star break. The
37-inning drought tied the franchise record set in 2013.
Shortstop Miguel Rojas said the Marlins drew inspiration from, of all people, Celine Dion and her hit song “My Heart Will Go On” from the movie “Titanic.” The team played the song in the clubhouse before the game and then again after.
“You’ve got to put things in perspective. It can always be worse,” Rojas said. “If I’m fighting for my life in that boat, that’s a lot worse than not scoring a run for 37 innings. I feel that’s the mentality we took into the game.”
Avisail Garcia stopped Miami’s nine-game streak without a home run, which was one short of the club record, with a solo shot in the eighth that capped the scoring.
The Marlins improved to 8-2 in their past
10 road games.
Garrett (2-3), a rookie left-hander, beat the Pirates for the second time in eight days by pitching one-run ball and allowing two hits. He struck out seven and walked one.
Garrett threw 28 pitches in the first inning before settling in.
“I knew that was a long inning for me, but I just told myself to try to get five or six innings and everyone on the team would be happy,” Garrett said.
In his last outing, Garrett pitched six shutout innings with 11 strikeouts.
Rookie catcher Nick Fortes drove in three runs. Garcia, Rojas and Jesus Aguilar each had two of the Marlins’ 13 hits.
“It was a collective struggle for us, so to get everybody in on the action tonight was pretty awesome,” Fortes said. “Now hopefully we can roll with it and everybody can kind of find their stride.”