Pete Fairbanks, Marlins collapse in walk-off loss to Dodgers

[Kevin Barral]

Just like in game one at Chavez Ravine last season, the Miami Marlins were walked off by the Los Angeles Dodgers, this time by a final score of 5-4.

In the ninth inning, the Marlins led 4-2 and went to their $13M man, Pete Fairbanks. The veteran closer walked both Andy Pages and Dalton Rushing to begin the inning. Shohei Ohtani knocked in a ground-rule double that drove Pages in. With runners on second and third with one out, Fairbanks fell behind 3-0 to Freddie Freeman before intentionally walking him. Manager Clayton McCullough and pitching coach Daniel Moskos made a mound visit together along with head athletic trainer L.J. Petra. After a couple seconds of examination and no throws from Fairbanks, he came out of the game.

Miami went to Tyler Phillips, who was given as much time as he needed to warm up. With the bases loaded, he struck out Will Smith swinging. The Dodgers' final hope was their big ticket free agent signing, Kyle Tucker. Tucker shook off his tough start to this season by smacking a base hit to center field on the second pitch of the at-bat, walking it off for the Dodgers.

Fairbanks landed only nine of his 23 pitches for strikes. Following the game, Marlins manager Clayton McCullough told reporters in LA that he exited the game with an "unusual sensation" in his right thumb.

"He was shaking his hand a little bit and somebody mentioned it's worth to go out there and just take a look and see if there was anything to it," McCullough said. "He did mention something about his thumb, and so at that point definitely you lean on the side of caution and just come in and get him evaluated and see what comes."

Pete Fairbanks exited tonight's game with an "unusual sensation" in his right thumb, per Clayton McCullough.

Will be evaluated further. pic.twitter.com/X52R30zSbx

— Fish On First (@FishOnFirst) April 28, 2026

Going into Monday night's series opener, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto had five consecutive quality starts, but the Marlins offense broke that streak, and the aforementioned Yamamoto turned in his worst start of the season.

"We took some really, really close pitches and tough pitches," McCullough said. "(Yamamoto) is going to get some strikeouts, and it's high caliber stuff. For us to get four walks, really make him work, and get his pitch count up and on top of that, to come through with a big hit by Liam, you want to be able to create traffic and stress pitchers, but to be able to come through when guys are on there is what it's all about. As a whole, against one of the best starting pitchers in this league, our guys just grinded out at-bats and gave ourselves some chances. We knew that we got a big hit from Liam, and so they did a nice job against him."

Yamamoto, in five innings of work, surrendered four runs (three earned) on five hits and four walks (season-high). In the top of the fourth inning with the bases loaded, Javier Sanoja reached first base on an E6 from Dodgers shortstop Hyeseong Kim, allowing the runner on third, Otto Lopez, to score.

In the ensuing inning, Marlins catcher Liam Hicks, who was going into his third at-bat against Yamamoto, took him deep for his team-leading sixth home run of the season. Hicks was able to time up Yamamoto's splitter just right, taking him 348 feet deep to right field at 101.1 mph.

Hicks, the former Rule 5 draft pick, is now slashing .311/.350/.544/.894 with six home runs, 27 RBI and a 143 wRC+. Hicks is now second amongst MLB players in RBI and ranked 10th in the National League in slugging percentage.

A Dodgers bullpen that entered the series opener with a 4.26 ERA, which is towards the middle of the pack in MLB this season, allowed one hit, which came off former Fish Jake Eder in the top of the ninth inning. Overall, the Marlins went 2-8 with runners in scoring position and left seven on base.

Chris Paddack, who made his sixth start of the season, allowed two runs on four hits, one walk and struck out one. Both runs came in the bottom of the first inning. Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman knocked in back-to-back hits, and Teoscar Hernández drove both in on an RBI single. From that point on, he allowed just one more hit in three innings of shutout baseball.

In the first, Paddack threw 19 pitches, but overall, averaged about 17 pitches per inning. His fastball was his best pitch on the night, topping out at 95.5 mph and averaged 93.4 mph. He also generated three whiffs with the pitch. The lone strikeout for Paddack came in the bottom of the third inning, when he got Shohei Ohtani to swing on his curveball.

"Some tough luck runs in the first, but to hang in there and looking at the way it went, for him to go four innings tonight and to leave with us leading the game, I thought he threw the ball very well again," McCullough said. " He filled it up, mixed speeds very well. That's what I asked of him tonight and he did his part."

Paddack, who was set to face the Dodgers lineup for a third time through, was taken out before he had the chance to do so. The Marlins had to use six relievers, with two of them throwing on back-to-back days in Andrew Nardi and Calvin Faucher.

With Paddack having only thrown 67 pitches, this is the third recent example of McCullough taking out his starter with a low pitch count despite solid results. He did it with Janson Junk on Wednesday against the St. Louis Cardinals and again on Sunday against the San Francisco Giants with Max Meyer throwing a season-low 77 pitches through five innings of work.

"The third time through certainly factored in," McCullough said regarding the quick hook with Paddack. "Chris is a real pro and competitor. He wanted to go back out there and just explained my rationale for why I felt our best path tonight was to turn it over and pass it along...I think each day, I look at what's the best way to win that game."

The Marlins are now 13-16 on the season and are tasked with facing Shohei Ohtani the pitcher on Tuesday night at 10:10 pm ET. Janson Junk will take the mound for the Marlins for his sixth start of the season.

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