30-year Marliniversary: Natal's walk-off triple pushes Fish past Cubs in 15

Despite making appearances in games in each of the Florida Marlins’ first five seasons, catcher Bob Natal appeared in just 115 contests as a member of the club.

His biggest moment, however, may have come on this day 30 years ago. Against the Chicago Cubs, Natal tripled home the winning run in the 15th inning to give the Marlins a thrilling 3-2 victory.

Matt Turner, Rich Rodriguez and Luis Aquino combined to hold the Cubs without a hit in extra innings at Joe Robbie Stadium on Aug. 10, 1993. The problem for the Marlins was they couldn’t find a way to score.

After a 10-pitch top of the 15th from Aquino, the Marlins opened the bottom of the 15th with consecutive groundouts from Henry Cotto and Aquino. Following a walk to Walt Weiss, Natal stepped in to face Shawn Boskie.

To that point in his career, Natal had just one extra-base hit to his name. He took the first offering he saw from Boskie and sliced it into the right-field corner. With Weiss going on contact, he was able to slide in and beat the throw home to score the winning run on Natal’s first career triple.

After five scoreless innings, the Cubs broke through on a two-run home run from Steve Lake in the top of the sixth off Chris Hammond. The Marlins got on the board and chased Chicago starter Mike Morgan in the bottom of the eighth on Jeff Conine’s RBI single to center. A sacrifice fly from Cotto later in the inning tied the contest.

Rey Sanchez finished with two of the four hits for the Cubs in the loss. Chuck Carr had three hits for Florida while Conine and Natal each added two.

Over six total seasons in Major League Baseball, Natal never played in more than 44 games and recorded just 57 hits for his career. His lone walk-off hit was a triple to end what, at the time, was the longest game in franchise history in terms of innings. It came on this day three decades ago.

Photo courtesy of Topps Trading Cards

Mike Ferguson is a contributor for Fish on First, who covers Miami Marlins history. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson