Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Salvaging finale
Ramirez’s HR caps rally as Marlins avoid sweep
MIAMI — Newly acquired Twins reliever Sam Dyson caught a flight Thursday morning in Philadelphia, arrived at Marlins Park an hour into the game and found himself pitching in the ninth inning on three hours’ sleep. It showed.
Dyson blew a three-run lead without retiring a batter, and Harold Ramirez hit a leadoff homer in the 12th to send the Marlins past Minnesota 5-4.
The AL Central-leading Twins revamped their bullpen after watching a whopping lead over Cleveland dwindle in the last month. Minnesota obtained reliever Sergio Romo in a trade with Miami over the weekend and acquired Dyson from San Francisco in a deadline-beating deal Wednesday.
Romo pitched a perfect eighth and turned a 4-1 lead in the ninth over to Dyson, who had a 2.47 ERA in 49 games for the Giants this season. Dyson faced four batters and allowed two walks, a single and an RBI double by Jon Berti before being pulled.
“It’s a bad first impression,” Dyson said with a chuckle. “Hopefully, there are no more of those. I haven’t walked too many guys this year — that’s the bad thing of the whole situation. I didn’t have it, and that’s about it.”
Twins manager Rocco Baldelli acknowledged he would be second-guessed for calling on Dyson.
“It made sense to get him in,” Baldelli said. “It’s a fairly high-leverage situation. He’s going to pitch in big spots like that for us the rest of the year. I thought it fit well.”
Ramirez hit his seventh homer against Cody Stashak (0-1) to avert a three-game sweep.
“Really, I just tried to get on base,” Ramirez said. “I tried not to do too much because we needed someone on base.”
The walk-off win was the Marlins’ third this season, and all have come since July 18.
“Really excited about that win,” manager Don Mattingly said. “We’re proud of everything that happened.”