Yandy Díaz and Cedric Mullins powered a relentless Tampa Bay attack, exploiting Miami's road struggles to secure a dominant victory and hand the Marlins their latest divisional defeat.
The Miami Marlins’ road troubles continued in their home state, as the Tampa Bay Rays took the first game of the Citrus Series handily with a 7-2 win on Friday.
The Rays (29-14) have won 17 of their last 20 games to move up to first place in the American League East. The Marlins (20-25) have dropped to 6-13 on the road.
”Playing ahead increases your chances of winning,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said during his postgame press conference, “and unfortunately we’ve been on the other side of that recently.”
Yandy Díaz hit a two-run homer in the first inning to put the Rays up early at 2-0. It was his only hit of the game, but he made it count.
The Marlins struck back in the second inning on a solo home run by Connor Norby to cut Tampa Bay’s lead to 2-1. It was his fourth home run of the season and second in the current road trip.
Richie Palacios led off the bottom of the second inning with a double, followed by a single by Cedric Mullins. Hunter Feduccia drove Palacios home on a sacrifice fly and Taylor Walls reached on a fielder’s choice, which allowed Mullins to score and extend the Rays’ lead to 4-1.
“They put the ball in play and were opportunistic with some guys on there and got some big hits,” McCullough said.
Palacios and Mullins continued their success at the plate in the fourth inning with each reaching base on a pair of singles. Hunter Feduccia hit a ground ball that led to Palacios being forced out at third but the catcher was able to safely reach first base. Both he and Mullins scored on a two-run double by Walls.
Jakob Marsee hit his third home run of the season in the sixth inning to draw the Marlins slightly closer to the Rays but still trailing 6-2. Marsee went 3-for-4 to lead the Marlins at the plate.
“It was a good night for Marsee, nice to see him,” McCullough said. “He put some really good swings tonight, especially with the home run. Good to see the path he took to the heater and put a good swing on that.”
The Rays responded in the bottom of the sixth with a solo home run from Mullins, his third of the season. Mullins went 4-for-4 to lead Tampa Bay hitters while Walls drove in a team-high three runs.
Janson Junk got roughed up by the Rays but still managed to last until the sixth inning. He gave up seven runs on 10 hits with three walks and four strikeouts. His worst start of the season took his ERA from 3.25 to 4.14 on the season.
“I thought his stuff was really good tonight,” McCullough said of Junk. “There were terribly a lot of hard-hit balls off of him but they were able to get some guys out there and to move them along when they had their chances.”
Michael Peterson and Andrew Nardi combined to throw 2.1 innings with only one hit allowed.
The Marlins will send ace Sandy Alcantara (3-2, 3.90 ERA) to the mound against the Rays and Nick Martinez (4-1, 1.70 ERA), who has been a shining free agent signing for Tampa Bay lately.
Join our ROUNDTABLE community! It's free to join. Share your thoughts, engage with our Roundtable writers, and chat with fellow members.
Download the free Roundtable APP, and stay even more connected!