Struggling Marsee walks it off for 50-win Marlins

[Kevin Barral]

MIAMI, FL — Of all the positives that you can mention during the Marlins three-city roadtrip, Jakob Marsee, who went 5-40 with one home run, was not one of them. Despite the struggles, he has been an everyday player. Even when he was hit in the knee during the final game of the roadtrip against the Athletics, he was back in the lineup hitting seventh on Tuesday night and he would be on the right side of luck, having a multi-hit performance and walking it off for the Marlins to defeat the Seattle Mariners, 6-5, reaching 50 wins on the season.

"I just know I can help the team win and hate not playing," Marsee said postgame. "Our trainers do such a good job to help us get back on the field and everything throughout the game as well, so I just want to help the team win any way I can, and any chance I can be in the lineup I want to play."

In the bottom of the 10th inning with runners on the corners and one out, Marsee hit a towering RBI single that he had originally thought was a home run, but as he said postgame, "we only needed a run."

"We all know how much he's been grinding this year offensively, and to come through there in that spot and get himself in a good count, get a pitch elevated and drive it to the outfield, I know that had to feel good for him," manager Clayton McCullough said postgame. "We talk a lot about how much Marsee does within the game, and for him to come through offensively, couldn't be prouder of him. He just keeps hanging in there and came through."

This season, Marsee is slashing .196/.318/.299/.617 with 5 home runs, 24 RBI, 18 stolen bases and a 77 wRC+. Although the numbers haven't been there offensively, Marsee has continued to provide a 12.6% walk rate, speed on the bases, and above average defense in center field. Those other parts of his game are the reason he is still at the Major League level.

In terms of expected batting average (.218), he has been a bit unlucky, but he hasn't been hitting the ball as hard as last season. He went from a 41.4% hard hit rate in 2025 to 34.4% in 2026.

"It's been tough," Marsee said. "This game is really frustrating. You feel like you do a lot of things right, and things don't go your way. Just a tough game in general. When you have a great group that makes it so much fun to come to the yard every day, they really have had my back the whole time, and we've been winning, so that's all I care about. I'm glad we've been winning games throughout the process."

Miami at one point led this game 4-0, and with how the team was clicking, a shutout was in their future. Max Meyer made his second to last start before the break, going five innings, allowing two runs on four hits (one home run), two walks and struck out four. In the bottom of the fifth inning, he surrendered a home run to Cole Young, his 10th of the season, making it 4-2.

Meyer, who is slated to start in Sunday's series finale against the Cleveland Guardians, will not pitch in the All-Star Game, but will go to Philadelphia and be part of all the festivities taking place. Major League Baseball made the official announcement prior to the game that Meyer, Jacob Misiorowski and Paul Skenes all will not pitch in the Midsummer Classic.

The Marlins All-Star was not able to record an out in the top of the sixth inning, leaving the game with the bases loaded for Michael Petersen. The UK native went in there, induced a force out, struck out Cal Raleigh swinging, and induced another force out to get out of the inning unscathed.

"Big Mike has been more than a key contributor, he's been a fantastic piece in our bullpen this year," McCullough said. "I've asked a lot from him in some really tight spots, coming in with a lot of runners on base, and today, bases loaded nobody out... You give up one run there, you're actually like, 'okay, that's most likely going to happen,' but Mike has just been filling it up with premium stuff and he's did it on the entire road trip, and really now through this run we've been having, we've leaned on him a lot and he's really performed."

After Petersen, McCullough turned to John King, who in an inning of work surrendered one run on one hit. The one run he surrendered was actually given up by Calvin Faucher, who inherited a runner from King in the eighth . Faucher then hit J.P. Crawford, struck out Dominic Canzone swinging, surrendered an RBI double to Raleigh, and an RBI single to Josh Naylor, tying the game, 4-4. Faucher went on to throw a wild pitch with the bases loaded, bringing in the go-ahead run for the Mariners and allowing them to take a 5-4 lead in the top of the eighth.

In the bottom of the inning, the Mariners brought in lefty Gabe Speier and Miami brought in Heriberto Hernandez to pinch hit for Griffin Conine. On the sixth pitch of the at-bat, Hernandez took Speier 422 feet deep to the left field concourse to tie the game, 5-5.

For Hernandez, this was his 12th home run of the season, and his third pinch-hit home run. He is now tied with Justin Bour (2018) and Preston Wilson (1999) for the second-most pinch-hit home runs by a Marlins player in one season, trailing only Curtis Granderson’s four in 2019.

Hernández's four career pinch-hit home runs are tied for the second-most in franchise history with Granderson, Wes Helms, and Cody Ross, trailing Bour's five.

"Bert in ways is conducive for being a good pinch hitter," McCullough said... "He's got a short swing, got power, very aggressive and usually in pinch hitting, there's not a lot of time to try to work an at-bat. The deck is stacked against you, and to come up there, ready to hit, and he can hit velocity and some mistakes spin in the strike zone, seeing him do that versus left, it was a really good at-bat. It's not being lost how difficult it is, but I think Bert after a year plus of having done this with some regularity, is accustomed to what he needs to do to get himself prepared for that moment."

The Mariners, who going into the series had a 3.55 ERA from their starting pitching, fifth best in MLB, saw starting pitcher Bryan Woo struggle. The Marlins offense, which has been red hot, tacked on four runs on nine hits (one home run).

Owen Caissie got the scoring started in the bottom of the second inning with his 12th HR of the season. Caissie is now slashing .239/.297/.459/.756 with a 101 wRC+. He is one of four Marlins to have hit double-digit home runs.

The struggling Jakob Marsee connected on a much needed RBI single in the bottom of the third, extending the Marlins lead, 3-0. A sacrifice fly from Kyle Stowers in the fourth inning made it a 4-0 lead.

Behind the plate, Joe Mack continues to not only throw runners out, but now made a little bit of history. In the top of the fourth inning, Mack threw out Randy Arozarena for his 17th caught stealing of the season, tying him with Milwaukee Brewers backstop William Contreras for most in the majors. He would be the first Marlins catcher since Charles Johnson (1997) to lead the Majors in caught stealings. Johnson finished that season tied with Seattle's Dan Wilson and Pittsburgh's Jason Kendall.

"It's no coincidence that our defense in a lot of ways has picked up since Joe's arrival," McCullough said. "We knew he had that type of pedigree and ability of throwing out runners. He had some great blocks as well with some runners on base."

With the win, the Marlins improve to 50-42 on the season. The St. Louis Cardinals were swept in their doubleheader against the Milwaukee Brewers, falling two games behind Miami for the third National League Wild Card Spot. The Marlins now also find themselves three games back of the National League East division lead as the Braves have lost three straight games. First pitch with Tyler Phillips on the mound on Wednesday is at 6:40 pm EST.

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