HOU 1, MIA 5: Back-to-back-to-back wins and home runs for Miami

After taking two out of three games against the New York Yankees, Miami welcomed the 2022 World Series champion Houston Astros, one of the hottest teams in baseball since the start of the second half. After Braxton threw five shutout innings, Miami was able to put the game away late thanks back-to-back-to-back homers and secure Monday's series-opening win.

For Marlins starting pitcher Braxton Garrett, it was a weird but fairly successful start for him in several ways. He utilized all six of his pitch types, mainly his sinker and slider, limiting Houston to no extra-base hits. But what stood out is he only struck out one batter compared to two walks. This was the first time all season that Garrett had more walks than strikeouts, and he became the first Marlins starter since Henderson Alvarez (2013) to go five scoreless innings or more while only striking out one batter. Garrett's lone strikeout victim was Jake Meyers on the slider.

"Didn't have my best stuff tonight, but me and Nick (Fortes) battled hard," said Garrett following the game. "We didn't shy away, we knew we didn't have our best stuff, but we just made pitches and had a lot of defenders in the right position tonight for sure."

Garrett generated five groundouts (one of those being a double play) and three flyouts. You can argue that he was a bit lucky tonight—Garrett's FIP was 4.07 and seven of the batted balls against him were hard-hit (95+ mph exit velocity).

"He grinded through that one," said Marlins manager Skip Schumaker. "Probably didn't feel like he had his best stuff. Didn't have all his pitches working. Was kind of fighting himself, but for him to get through five innings with no runs and get double plays at the right time was big for him and for us."

The Marlins' first run of the game was thanks to a Jon Berti RBI double that drove in Nick Fortes, who led the inning off with a double of his own in the bottom of the third. Berti then stole third and scored himself on a Martin Maldonado passed ball . Miami took a 2-0 lead and never looked back.

Relievers Andrew Nardi, Jorge López and Tanner Scott limited the Astros to only one run. The Astros had their opportunities, but went 2-for-12 hitting with runners in scoring position.

For the first time since 1998, the Marlins went on a back-to-back-to-back homer streak. It began with Jorge Soler taking Framber Valdez deep to left field. The ball left the bat at 109.6 mph and went 387 feet into the air. That was Soler's 29th home run of the season and it gave Miami a 3-1 lead.

Following Soler, was Luis Arráez, who actually called his home run before his at-bat. Arráez took Valdez 367 feet deep off the right field foul pole. The ball left the bat at 103.2 mph for Arráez's fifth homer of the season and his second of this homestand.

The third and final home run of the sequence was from Josh Bell, who was celebrating his 31st birthday. The Astros made a pitching change and brought in former Philadelphia Phillies right-hander Hector Neris.

"Have faced Neris a few times in my career," said Bell after the game about his former NL East rival. "Just back when he was with the Phillies. Got to see the splitter up. You can't try to do too much with a fastball, but he's got cut to the fastball so you got to stay short to it. I just went through that first splitter."

That was Bell's 16th home run of the season and it extended Miami's lead to 5-1, which would be the final score of the game. Despite this not being a save situation, Miami still went with David Robertson to finish the game out.

Miami now improves to a 63-57 record while the Astros drop to 68-52. For the Marlins on Tuesday, Johnny Cueto takes the bump while a struggling Cristian Javier goes for the Astros.

Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images