Start spreading the news: Marlins salvage series finale in New York

BRONX, NY—Following two losses to begin their series against the Yankees in the Bronx, the Marlins looked to Ryan Weathers for the final game of the three-game series. He answered the bell, throwing five scoreless innings in the park adjacent to where his father won a World Series in 1996. 

Keeping hitters off balance and getting weak contact was the name of the game for Weathers as he didn't allow anyone on the Yankees to reach third base even while his pitch count continued to climb early on. He stranded two runners in both the second and third innings to keep it scoreless and worked a clean and crisp 1-2-3 fifth inning to end his night. In that fifth inning, Jose Trevino hit a ball to deep left field that could've, should've, and would've been a home run had it not been for the wind that was howling in from LF. 

Weathers' final line: 5.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 1 K, 94/53 pitches/strikes.

 

Weathers said of pitching close to where his father won a World Series: "You know, it's really cool. I've always heard stories of him in '96. I wasn't born yet, but just hearing all the stories of him winning here and its just really cool to kind of be a second generation to come here and win a ballgame."

On the offensive side of the ball, the Marlins hitters rallied in the fourth inning beginning with a walk by Nick Gordon, who went to third on a gorgeous hit-and-run with Nick Fortes at the plate, and scored when Luis Arraez hit a single to notch his first RBI of the season. Birthday boy Jake Burger then proceeded to take Marcus Stroman to the Marlins bullpen for a three-run home run to give the Marlins a 4-0 lead. 108.5 mph, 425 ft.

"Anytime you can get a win and hit a homer on a birthday, it seems like a pretty good day," Burger said. "I woke up this morning, and what I wanted was a Marlins win, and fortunately, we got one."

Bryan Hoeing relieved Weathers to begin the sixth inning and fulfilled a childhood dream by pitching at Yankee Stadium. The first batter he faced was Aaron Judge, and Hoeing wasted no time, striking him out on a nasty slider at the bottom of the zone. Then, Hoeing left a sinker in the middle of the plate to Giancarlo Stanton, who hit his first-ever home run against the Marlins. Stanton has now homered against every major league ballclub. Hoeing bounced back with a pop-up and a strikeout to end the inning. 

Hoeing on buckling down to complete the inning: "That was huge. To be able to bounce back after a home run like that when the stadium erupted a little bit, to keep my composure and bear down and get the next two guys to give Nardi a clean inning there in that next inning to help the bullpen out a little bit, that was huge."

Andrew Nardi pitched a scoreless seventh and has "started to look like himself again," according to manager Skip Schumaker.

Anthony Bender got into some trouble in the bottom of the eighth inning, allowing a run on a walk and a booming double off the bat of Juan Soto. Skip elected to hand the ball to Tanner Scott with one out, a runner on second, and Stanton, Rizzo, and Torres due up. Scott walked Stanton, got Rizzo to pop out, and struck out Torres to preserve the 4-2 lead. 

Marlins hitters tacked on another run in the top of the ninth. With the runners going on an 0-2 pitch, Tim Anderson made his way from second to home on Fortes' grounder to the left side. 

And then things got dicey again.

Scott got a groundout to first for the first out, allowed a single to old friend Jon Berti, got Trevino to pop out, and then walked Volpe and Soto to load the bases for none other than Aaron Judge. "I didn't mean to make it interesting with the bases loaded and two outs. It was not fun and I need to do better on that part and stop walking people especially after getting out of eighth," said Scott.

But he rebounded and got Judge to hit a lazy fly ball to Jazz in center field to end the game and secure the first Marlins save of the season. It took Scott 34 pitches to get the job done, one shy of his highest total from any 2023 appearance.

Final score: Marlins 5, Yankees 2.

Time of game: 2 hours, 50 minutes.

Noah's Notes

• Yankees manager Aaron Boone was ejected in the seventh inning for arguing balls and strikes.
• Nick Gordon reached base safely in three of his four plate appearances.
• Luis Arraez went 2-for-5 with an RBI.
• Jesús Sánchez worked two walks and stole his career-high-tying third base of the season. Mind you, it's only the second week of April. Sánchez squandered the steal, however, by getting doubled off of second base on a routine fly ball.
• The Marlins have an off day Thursday before hosting the Braves for a three-game series in Miami beginning on Friday.
• Thank you to everyone who followed along with my coverage of the series in the Bronx.
• 'Til Tmrw.