10-year Marliniversary: Marlins use back-to-back blasts from McGehee, Ozuna to top Brewers

[Mike Ferguson]

Casey McGehee and Marcell Ozuna came up with back-to-back blasts to lift the Marlins past Milwaukee a decade ago. 

During his prime, Francisco Rodríguez was one of the premier closers in baseball. On this day 10 years ago, however, the Miami Marlins got to the six-time All-Star with back-to-back home runs to break a ninth inning tie and propel the Fish to a 6-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Marlins never trailed at Miller Park on Sept. 9, 2014, but as the contest went to the ninth tied 3-3, Milwaukee turned to its All-Star closer. During an All-Star campaign in which Rodríguez led baseball with 66 games finished, the man known as "K-Rod" had a bit of a rough end to August. The Marlins made sure those struggles continued into September.

The night started well for Rodríguez, who retired Christian Yelich and Donovan Solano on just six total pitches to start the top of the ninth. A two-out walk to Giancarlo Stanton, however, opened the door for Casey McGehee to be the hero against his former team.

One pitch after Stanton stole second to move into scoring position, McGehee unloaded on a backdoor slider, smashing it over the wall in left-center field for the go-ahead two-run home run to give Miami a 5-3 lead. The Marlins, though, weren't done.

After working the count full, Marcell Ozuna provided an insurance run with a blast of his own by tomahawking a fastball over the wall in left field to extend the lead to 6-3. Milwaukee was able to bring the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the inning, but Steve Cishek collected the save by getting Khris Davis and Jason Rogers to fly out to end the contest.

Ozuna finished 3-for-3 with two RBIs in the win. Yelich, Solano and McGehee each added two hits. Aramis Ramírez finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs for Milwaukee.

Although Rodríguez was named an All-Star for the fifth time in 2014, he did give up a career-high 14 home runs that season. The last two came from Marlins on back-to-back blasts in the ninth inning. They happened on this day a decade ago. 

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