Owen Caissie multi-hit performance makes Marlins winners of 4 straight

The first of three games between the Miami Marlins and the Toronto Blue Jays looked lopsided on paper in favor of the reigning American League champions, with young star right-hander Trey Yesavage taking the mound. However, fresh off a sweep of the New York Mets, Clayton McCullough's club came in with plenty of confidence. Yesavage surrendered a season-high five runs, which would be more than enough as the Marlins defeated the Blue Jays, 8-2, extending their win streak to a season-best four games.

"it was tough, but big to get one early and give (Janson) Junk a run to work with," McCullough said postgame. "Then we just put together some good at-bats there...We just did some little things very well when given some opportunities to put a crooked number up."

Miami's offense wasted no time getting to Yesavage. Xavier Edwards led the game off with a double, he advanced to third after Liam Hicks grounded out and Otto Lopez drove him in on a sac fly, making it 1-0 in the top of the first inning.

Owen Caissie, a native of Ontario, Canada, laced an RBI double in the top of the fifth inning to drive in Javier Sanoja from second to extend the lead. Caissie capped off the night for Miami in the top of the eighth with an RBI single off lefty Adam Macko.

Monday's game marked Caissie's third multi-hit game of the season and his eighth multi-RBI game. Through his previous 11 games, Caissie was slashing .296/.345/.538/.883 with two home runs and seven RBI. His season slash line is now .221/.279/.374/.653 with four home runs, 26 RBI and an 81 wRC+.

"He's hung in there, and he's making some adjustments," McCullough said. "He's getting himself again. I think some better pitches to go after, and we're getting the performance to follow how much better his approach has been."

The main issue for Caissie continues to be strikeouts, now at a 41.5 K%. Going into Monday, Caissie's strikeout rate was the highest in baseball (min. 140 PA).

Kyle Stowers, who went hitless this past weekend against the Mets, had a multi-hit day, driving in two runs in the top of the sixth inning. It was an extremely lucky hit, as Blue Jays left fielder Yohendrick Pinango and shortstop Andres Gimenez were not able to decide who would make the catch. Stowers in the top of the eighth drove in another run on an RBI double.

Javier Sanoja was the third Marlins hitter who had a multi-hit game. Since the beginning of the series against the Tampa Bay Rays (5/15), but not including Monday, he has a .983 OPS. In the top of the sixth, he hit a double off Yesavage that Piñango wasn't able to track down, allowing Stowers and Jakob Marsee to score.

Junk had struggled in his last two starts against two of baseball's best offenses. He bounced back against a mediocre Blue Jays lineup that did not have Vladimir Guerrero Jr. He went five innings of one-run ball with three strikeouts, but allowed eight hits. The lone run he allowed came in the bottom of the fifth inning when Piñango drove in Lenyn Sosa on an RBI single, making it 2-1.

Although the final line may indicate that Junk was good, there was certainly some luck involved. The defense behind Junk saved him a couple times. He surrendered six hard-hit balls and had an xFIP of 4.38. Junk put at least one base runner on in four of the five innings that he pitched.

"Today he was able to just reset himself and just go make the best pitch that he can," McCullough said. "Jansen is a good pitcher, and he's got a lot of moxie. Hung in there and did it when he needed to do it the most...Some of the luck has gone against him a little bit and I think today he's in those jams, but he buckled down, made pitches and got some huge outs to only give up the one run through five."

With the win, the Marlins are now 26-29 on the season and will have Sandy Alcantara on the mound Tuesday night at 7:07 pm. The Blue Jays have yet to announce a starter for that game, but it does seem as if they will be going with a bullpen game.