10-year Marliniversary: Marlins stun Giants on Bour’s 3-run walk-off shot

[Mike Ferguson]

The 2015 season isn’t one that South Florida baseball fans will remember fondly, but it did have its moments.

The Miami Marlins had nine walk-off wins that season and two by way of home run. The first of those came on this day 10 years ago.

Miami hosted the San Francisco Giants at Marlins Park on July 1, 2015. When the night was over, the series was clinched with a 6-5 win, courtesy of a three-run walk-off home run by Justin Bour.

The Marlins had just five hits total entering the final inning. Their three runs had all come in the third inning.

Miami led 3-2 after five, but San Francisco went ahead with two runs in the sixth. After Brandon Belt tied the game with a sacrifice fly, Brandon Crawford’s solo homer gave the Giants a 4-3 lead. San Francisco added an insurance run on Matt Duffy’s RBI infield single in the seventh.

The Marlins were unable to get a hit against the San Francisco bullpen. It didn’t take long, however, to figure out Giants closer Santiago Casilla. Both hitless to that point, Christian Yelich and Adeiny Hechavarría got the inning started for the Marlins with back-to-back singles. That set the stage for Bour.

After getting ahead in the count 1-0, Bour got a fastball from Casilla and hammered a line-drive home run over the right-field wall. Casilla had blown the save and the Marlins had won the game in dramatic fashion.

The Giants finished with 14 hits to just eight for Miami. Gregor Blanco was 3-for-4 with an RBI in the loss. Angel Pagan, Joe Panik and Duffy collected two hits apiece for San Francisco. But it was all for naught.

Bour had two of the eight Miami hits. Dee Strange-Gordon had an RBI triple and a run scored. Starting pitcher Dan Haren also had an RBI hit and a run scored for Miami. On the mound, Steve Cishek worked a scoreless ninth to earn the win for the Marlins.

Miami won 5-4 the next day to complete the series sweep. It marked just the third three-game sweep of the season for the Marlins. The most dramatic of those three wins came on this day a decade ago.

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