Marlins bats explode for 12 hits, overpowering the Reds in an 8-1 victory to secure a crucial series split and solidifying their home dominance.
In the second straight game against a right-handed starting pitcher, the Miami Marlins tallied 12 hits to win 8-1 over the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday to earn a split in the series.
“We got locked in as a group and got together more and just went to have fun,” said Marlins infielder Otto Lopez after the game on responding to losing the first two games of the series.
The Marlins struck first in the opening inning, when Xavier Edwards hit a triple and scored on a fielder’s choice.
They opened the game up in the fourth inning after a pair of doubles from Lopez and Owen Caissie led to two more runs. A base hit from Javier Sanoja made it a 4-0 game.
Cincinnati’s only run of the game came off the bat of the hometown kid. Rookie first baseman Sal Stewart hit a solo home run in the fifth. It was his second consecutive homer and completes a four-game series in which Stewart drove in a run in each game.
Cassie hit his second double of the game and scored on a Sanoja single in the sixth inning. He later drove in a run on a single in the seventh inning to stretch the Miami lead to 6-1.
Sanoja went 3-for-4 with two RBI to improve his batting average to .406 on the season.
Caissie went 3-for-4 with 3 RBI to improve his batting average to .324 and OPS to over 1.000 through 12 games.
It is a vast improvement for Caissie compared to the 12 big league games he played with the Chicago Cubs last year, where he batted .192 with a .568 OPS.
A two-run single by Ramirez in the eighth inning wrapped up the scoring for the Marlins. Ramirez has gone 4-for-14 with three RBI in his last three games after starting the season with seven hits in 30 at-bats.
Marlins starting pitcher Max Meyer earned the win after throwing five innings. He only allowed one home run and four hits with three walks and had four strikeouts.
Anthony Bender threw a scoreless inning in the sixth and Tyler Phillips earned a three-inning save with five strikeouts and three hits allowed.
Reds (8-5) starter Rhett Lowder suffered the loss after allowing five runs (four earned) on eight hits with two walks and two strikeouts in 5.1 innings.
The Marlins (8-5) are 7-3 at home to start the season, which is the second-best home start in franchise history. The only iteration of the Fightin’ Fish to have a better home start was the 1997 team, which won the World Series in its fifth season as a franchise.
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