10-year Marliniversary: Marlins use 4-run 9th to rally past Rockies, 5-3

[Mike Ferguson]

As 1993 expansion sisters, the Miami Marlins and Colorado Rockies are separated by less than 100 wins all-time. On this day 10 years ago, the bats came alive for the Marlins late to stun the Rockies at Coors Field.

Held scoreless for seven innings, Miami came through when it mattered. The Marlins scored four runs in the ninth for a 5-3 victory.

Traditionally a hitter’s paradise, Coors Field had seen just one scored through seven and a half innings on Aug. 5, 2016. That came in the first inning on an RBI double from Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton. In the bottom of the eighth, however, Colorado came through with three runs.

After an errant throw from Dee Strange-Gordon allowed Colorado’s DJ LeMahieu to score the tying run, David Dahl’s RBI single off Fernando Rodney gave the Rockies a 2-1 lead. Dahl would come around to score on an RBI single from Mark Reynolds to extend the lead to 3-1.

The Rockies looked to be on the verge of making the lead even bigger after consecutive walks loaded the bases with one out. Brian Ellington, however, was able to fan Ryan Raburn before getting Charlie Blackmon to ground out to end the inning.

Leading 3-1, Carlos Estévez came in to try to close things out for Colorado in the top of the ninth inning. After walking J.T. Realmuto on four pitches, Chris Johnson singled for Miami to put the tying run on base. Adeiny Hechavarría followed with an RBI single to cut the lead to 3-2. An errant throw from left allowed two runners to move into scoring position.

Estévez was able to strike out Derek Dietrich, but that’s the only out he would record. Two pitches later, Prado singled up the middle to score two and give the Marlins a 4-3 lead. Estévez’s day was done, but the Marlins were able to add another run as Christian Yelich lined Jordan Lyles’ second pitch to center for a sacrifice fly.

AJ Ramos worked around a lead-off single from LeMahieu in the bottom of the ninth to record the save. LeMahieu finished 4-for-4 in the loss. Reynolds added three hits for the Rockies. Hechavarría had two of the eight hits for Miami.

During a 2016 season in which the Marlins finished 79-82, they won five of seven games against the Rockies. The only one of those wins that required a ninth-inning comeback came on this day a decade ago.

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