Struggling Marlins power largest comeback win of the season

[Kevin Barral]

MIAMI, FL — Game two against the Washington Nationals began to look like a repeat of game one, as the visitors took an early 4-0 lead. The Miami Marlins climbed back to tie the game at 4-4 thanks to home runs from Kyle Stowers and Xavier Edwards. It was unlikely hero Jakob Marsee who hit the go-ahead homer in the bottom of the eighth inning. Despite some stress in the top of the ninth, the Marlins held on for an 8-7 win, marking their largest comeback win of the season.

Stowers, the Marlins' 2025 All-Star, suffered a right hamstring strain during spring training that kept him out for the 20 games of the season. He entered Saturday slashing .206/.296/.254/.550 with one RBI and a 56 wRC+. Stowers went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in the first game of the series, but Marlins manager Clayton McCullough felt like his final at-bat was "an encouraging one."

Kyle Stowers hit his first home run of the season in the bottom of the fourth inning. He took Nationals pitcher Zack Littell deep to the second deck in right field.

"He seemed like less in between," McCullough said after Friday's game. "He got some swings off and I think the Kyle that we know is someone who's incredibly convicted in his approach. Kyle is smart, and he goes into an at-bat generally knowing what he's looking for, where he's looking for it. Trust his eyes to lay off and just feeling for it a little bit to me. Looked like early on and then the last one, I think he got in there and got off some much more aggressive and convicted swings."

He finished the game going 3-for-4 with a home run and two RBI. It was his second three-hit performance of the season.

"I think just coming in with a plan was the difference for me," Stowers said. "When it comes to committing to a plan, there are areas in which you're still gonna give up, so once you get beat, it's making sure that there's a hill that you're willing to die on."

In what looked like a replay of Edwards' third home run of the season from Friday night, he took Nationals reliever Mitchell Parker 422 feet deep to left field, tying the game at four apiece. It was his longest MLB homer in terms of distance and set a new career-high for most homers in a single season. It also marked the first time in his career that he has hit a homer in back-to-back games.

Right-handed hitting was a weakness in 2025 for the switch-hitting Edwards. This year, he has an incredible .342/.405/.526 slash line from that side. 

"I like to treat both sides like two different hitters, so that's what I'm trying to do," Edwards said. "Got rid of my toe tap on the right-hand side, and kind of freed me up a little bit. My body moves different on the right-hand side, so let's try to treat it like that."

With the game tied in the bottom of the eighth inning, Stowers knocked in his third hit and Connor Norby worked a walk. Jakob Marsee, who many have been calling for him to be sent back down to Triple-A as he entered Saturday's game with a 67 wRC+, hit a go-ahead three-run homer to give the Marlins a 7-4 lead.

"Confidence is a weird thing," Clayton McCullough said postgame. "You're never quite sure where it's going to come from. Hopefully having some moments and coming through will certainly help spark that. I think also that is going to getting back to what we believe and what they think will lead to the opportunity to have success, and that's just getting there with some conviction in the box and being ready to go. If you get something that you like to get some swings off and not be so worried about it needing to be the perfect pitch, or what the pitch is—just having a plan and letting it go."

For Marsee, his faith and his support system have helped him get through this slump to begin 2026.

"Just trusting that everything happens for a reason," Marsee said. "It's all gonna work how it's supposed to, so that's been huge. These guys here every day have been huge for me. Then people back home that care and support me, so to have them is huge."

Esteury Ruiz hit a double in the ensuing at-bat, stole third (sixth stolen base of the season) and Leo Jimenez drove him in on a sac fly to center field, extending he lead, 8-4.

In six innings of work, Junk allowed four runs on seven hits, two walks and six strikeouts. Three of the four runs Junk allowed came in the top of the first inning when James Wood hit his 11th home run of the season and CJ Abrams knocked in his league-leading 36th RBI of the season.

Four of Junk's sixth strikeouts came on his fastball, which he threw 37% of the time. All of those four strikeouts came looking. He also landed his fastball six out of 10 times for a first-pitch strike (60%). Where Junk struggled was surrendering a season-high 10 hard-hit balls. Of those 10, four of them came on the fastball.

Michael Petersen, who entered into a pretty comfortable situation, leading 8-4, allowed three runs in the top of the ninth inning. After finally getting two outs, McCullough summoned lefty John King out of the bullpen to get the final out of the game. King earned his first career save in what was his 11th consecutive scoreless outing.

With the win, the Marlins improve to 18-22 on the season while the Nationals drop to 19-21. Sandy Alcantara will get the nod for Miami in the rubber match on Mother's Day. First pitch is at 12:15 pm and the game will be aired exclusively on Peacock. It'll be the first of back-to-back Sunday games aired on that streaming service.

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[2qbn]

Big win. Now they can take the series if we get the real Sandy. Here's hoping to him being in the zone.