Marlins roll to 11th straight road win after huge third-inning rally

[Kevin Barral]

It was a seven-run top of the third inning that propelled the Marlins to a rare blowout win on Tuesday. Eury Pérez limited the Cincinnati Reds offense to just two hits and the Fish won by a final score of 12-2.

After Matt McLain took Pérez deep in the bottom of the first inning, giving the Reds a 1-0 lead for a second straight night, the Marlins got to Miami native Nick Martinez in the top of the third, tacking on seven runs.

Martinez began the inning by walking first baseman Liam Hicks. That would be followed by six straight hits:

• Heriberto Hernandez infield single
• Dane Myers RBI single
• Xavier Edwards two-run double
• Jesús Sánchez RBI single
• Otto Lopez double
• Agustín Ramírez RBI single

Kyle Stowers snapped the hit streak, but drove Lopez in on a sac fly and Connor Norby did the same, driving in Ramírez on his own sac fly, giving the Marlins a 7-1 lead.

This was the Marlins' highest-scoring inning since September 8 of last season against the Philadelphia Phillies. Tuesday's game marked the most amount of runs that Martinez has allowed in a start.

On the flip side, Eury Pérez continued to resemble his 2023 self, giving his team five innings of one-run ball, allowing two hits, no walks and a season-high eight strikeouts. Although Pérez had to work some deep counts, especially after a 23-pitch bottom of the first inning, he settled in and went on to post a 70.6% first-pitch strike rate. Reds hitters fouled off 21 pitches, which contributed to him lasting only five frames.

Pérez's slider generated three whiffs and he used it for three of his strikeouts. Pérez's new sweeper was used 15% of the time, generating four whiffs and two strikeouts. His fastball averaged 97.8 mph, topping out at 99.5 mph.

Between his last two starts, Pérez has now thrown 11 innings, allowing three hits, one run, one walk and 15 strikeouts. His season ERA is now down to 4.00.

"Very encouraged with his willingness to utilize his secondaries and need to feel more confident in his breaking balls and getting some feel for his changeup," said Marlins manager Clayton McCullough. "With each outing, the fastball is always going to be there and opponents are going to respect the ability to mix things up and utilize his full mix and get ahead of people. That's going to continue to be a driver of his success."

In the top of the sixth inning, the Marlins loaded the bases and Heriberto Hernandez worked a walk to extend the lead. They kept pouring it on with a Dane Myers double play and a Xavier Edwards RBI single. Reds starting catcher Jose Trevino pitched the final two innings. The 12 runs matched Miami's season-high for a single game.

With the win, the Marlins are 42-48 on the season, six games under .500. Per Marlins Communications, they are the first MLB club to record an 11-game road winning streak since the Phillies had a 13-game streak in 2023 (which was snapped by the Fish).

Sandy Alcantara will take the mound next for the Marlins as they aim for a series win. For the Reds, it'll be recently named All-Star Andrew Abbott. First pitch on Wednesday is at 7:10 pm.

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[MarlinFaninGA]

What a game! What a BLOWOUT! I couldn't believe what I was seeing! I sure hope Bendix doesn't trade off any of our boys. I don't know anything about Trades and such, I'm pretty ignorant about those things. I just like what I'm seeing with the Fish! Do you know if they are talking about trading any of the guys? It just feels like the team is really coming together. And is there any possibility that Ramirez will be on the All Star Team? If so, in what capacity?