Marlins turn extra out into explosive inning, open west coast trip with win

Matt Mervis slammed his bat in frustration. Given the green light in a 3-0 count, Seattle Mariners right-hander Casey Lawrence served up a center-cut, 88 mph fastball, and Mervis wasted it by hitting a routine grounder to second baseman Dylan Moore for the final out of the inning...or so he thought. Mervis briefly looked away from the play while jogging down the line, only to find out that the ball had somehow gotten behind Moore. The Miami Marlins still had life in the top of the fifth and made it count.

The Marlins went on to score six runs—all of them unearned—before the inning actually ended, ultimately defeating the Mariners at T-Mobile Park, 8-4.

Through the first three innings, it was hard to fathom a scenario where the Fish would put up eight runs. Logan Gilbert mowed down their lineup on just 29 total pitches. They caught a massive break when Gilbert exited the game due to right forearm tightness.

The Mariners had taken the lead on Moore's solo home run in the bottom of the second. To Cal Quantrill's credit, that was his only blunder early on. Entering the fifth, every other Seattle batter had been retired. Quantrill was staying away from their lefties with pitches on the outer third of the strike zone and they helped him out in a few instances by expanding a few inches off of the plate. He was extremely efficient as a result (12 outs on 48 total pitches).

Quantrill's catcher, Liam Hicks, was the first Marlin to exploit Moore's miscue. He blooped a single off the end of the bat into left-center field to tie the game. Javier Sanoja and Xavier Edwards followed with singles of their own to make it a 4-1 lead. Jesús Sánchez brought home two more runs by clobbering a Lawrence sweeper deep to right field for his first homer since returning from the injured list.

The Marlins have scored 54.4% of their runs this season when there are two outs in an inning, which is by far the highest percentage among MLB teams.

Clayton McCullough kept Quantrill in for the sixth inning, a decision he would quickly regret. The Mariners pulled to within 6-4 when Jorge Polanco blasted a three-run bomb on a misplaced cutter. Quantrill continues to struggle when facing opponents for the third time in a game.

Miami's bullpen put out the fire. Jesús Tinoco, Calvin Faucher and Ronny Henriquez combined for 3 ⅓ scoreless innings.

The final frames were much less stressful thanks to the prodigious bat of Agustín Ramírez. With Lawrence still pitching in the top of the eighth, the designated hitter extended the Marlins' lead to 8-4 with his first career homer.

Ramírez's numbers since being called up earlier this week are extraordinary and possibly unprecedented. He has a slash line of .700/.750/1.400 with a 461 wRC+ (100 represents league average). He has mashed five extra-base hits and none of them have been cheapies—exit velocities above 100 mph on all them, including 106.9 mph on the round-tripper. Nobody's been able to strike him out yet.

Since the start of the 20th century, there is no record of a player compiling seven hits including five extra-base hits through their first three career games, according to MLB.com's Sarah Langs. 

Saturday's starting pitching matchup is another mismatch on paper with former waiver claim Connor Gillispie and three-time All-Star Luis Castillo taking the mound for the Marlins and Mariners, respectively. Expect Ramírez to catch Gillispie. First pitch is again scheduled for 9:40 p.m. ET.