Marlins overcome early deficit for third consecutive walk-off win

[Kevin Barral]

First, it was Vidal Bruján, then Otto Lopez. On Friday night, Tim Anderson was responsible for the Marlins' walk-off finish.

MIAMI, FL—Each game has had a different hero, but the Miami Marlins keep winning in a familiar fashion. This time, Tim Anderson's 10th-inning RBI single drove in Jake Burger to clinch the opener of a three-game set against the Seattle Mariners. The final score was 3-2.

Anderson is now riding a five-game hit streak, his longest since signing with the Marlins. It marked his seventh multi-hit game of June, which has been by far his best month of the season.

"This is who we thought we got," said Marlins manager Skip Schumaker. "He's been good defensively. Made some good plays defensively...He had some really good swings again. He's up the middle. That's when he know he's right. He felt like he was getting closer, went away for a couple days and since he's been back, he's been locked in."

Trevor Rogers set up the Marlins with a strong outing. After going a season-high seven innings against the Washington Nationals, Rogers followed it up with similar results, eating 6 ⅓ innings pitched, striking out five and only allowing two runs off of four hits and one walk. Rogers relied on both of his fastballs, going with the sinker as his most-used pitch. Rogers' changeup generated five out of his nine whiffs. He worked to a 47.1% groundball rate, similar to his 2024 average (48.0 GB%).

After a long first inning, Rogers settled down, throwing only 14 pitches per inning overall. He did get into some deep counts, but was able to work his way through them. Rogers' velocity was a bit higher than usual on Friday. He averaged 92.2 mph on the sinker (topping out at 94.5 mph) and 92.4 on the four-seam fastball (topping out at 95.0 mph).

"Trevor was incredible tonight," said Schumaker. He went on to credit pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr., bullpen coach Wellington Cepeda and pitching strategist Brandon Mann for helping Rogers make adjustments after allowing eight earned runs to the Oakland Athletics on May 4. In eight starts since then, he has a 3.89 ERA. His next scheduled start is projected to be on Wednesday, June 26 against the Kansas City Royals.

In the top of the first inning, designated hitter Mitch Garver drove in J.P. Crawford on a sac fly to put Seattle on the board. The second Mariners run of the game came in the top of the second on a Ryan Bliss RBI triple to take a 2-0 lead.

Through 5 ⅔ innings of play, the Marlins struggled to get anything going against Mariners starter George Kirby. Despite six hard-hit balls, Seattle's defense was great. Then, Bryan De La Cruz and Josh Bell took matters into their own hands by hitting back-to-back home runs to tie the game at two apiece. De La Cruz's home run marked his 14th of the season, while for Bell, it was his eighth.

Kirby didn't dominate the Marlins to the same extent as last year, but once again, he didn't walk anyone and went seven innings of work. The two home runs would be the only runs scored on him, but he was as efficient, averaging 12 pitches per inning and generating 13 whiffs and five groundouts. A lot of the contact that the Mariners right-hander gave up was through the air.

"It's not difficult on just us: he's good. That's a good pitcher," said Schumaker. "He's a good pitcher in the league. He's going to be a good pitcher in the league for a long time."

In the series finale against the St. Louis Cardinals, De La Cruz and Jesús Sánchez went back-to-back. Per Marlins Communications, it marks the first time that the Marlins have hit back-to-back homers in consecutive games since June 21-22, 2022 against the Colorado Rockies.

With the win, the Miami Marlins improve to 26-49 while the Mariners go to 44-34 on the season. Schumaker announced that Saturday's starter will be Shaun Anderson. Because Anderson was optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville only a week ago, a pitcher will have to be placed on the injured list so that he can be recalled.

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