Jake Burger slugged his 10th homer in his past 16 games as the host Miami Marlins ended the San Diego Padres’ seven-game winning streak with a wild 7-6 victory on Sunday afternoon.
San Diego appeared to tie the score 7-7 with two outs in the ninth on a solo home run by Ha-Seong Kim. But, upon review, the drive was ruled a ground-rule double as the ball hit the top of the wall and was then inadvertently shoved over the fence by Marlins left fielder Kyle Stowers.
Reliever George Soriano then entered and struck out Luis Campusano to end the game and notch his first save this season.
Burger went 3-for-4 with three runs scored and two RBIs. Jesus Sanchez also hit a two-run homer for Miami.
During San Diego’s win streak, the Padres accomplished a franchise first by winning four straight games during which they trailed in the eighth inning or later. Two of those wins came against Miami.
On Sunday, the Marlins, who own one of the three worst records in the majors, barely managed to hold on for the victory.
Max Meyer (3-2), Miami’s first-round pick in 2020, retired San Diego’s first nine batters. He pitched a career-long 6 1/3 innings, allowing seven hits, no walks and four runs with four strikeouts. It was just his ninth MLB start.
Dylan Cease (11-9), who leads the majors in strikeouts, took the loss. In five innings, he struck out five and allowed six hits, two walks and five runs (two earned).
Miami got to Cease early by producing four singles during a 32-pitch first inning. The first RBI went to Jonah Bride on a check-swing infield hit. The second RBI went to Otto Lopez on a liner that deflected off the glove of leaping second baseman Jake Cronenworth.
In the second inning, the Marlins capitalized on two Padres errors to score three unearned runs.
The rally started when Derek Hill reached on shortstop Kim’s fielding error. Hill scored on a play during which Xavier Edwards reached when first baseman Luis Arraez dropped a throw from Kim.
Three pitches later, Burger made it 5-0 with his two-run homer to center.
The Padres got on the board with three RBI groundouts between the fifth and sixth innings.
In the fifth, Xander Bogaerts stroked a leadoff double and scored on David Peralta’s groundout.
In the sixth, the rally started with Campusano’s single and Arraez’s double. San Diego cashed in on groundouts by Jurickson Profar and Cronenworth. On the later play, Cronenworth hit a 105-mph grounder off the left leg of Meyer, but the ball bounced right to Bride at first.
The Padres cut their deficit to 5-4 on Peralta’s RBI double with one out in the seventh. But Declan Cronin came in and struck out Kim and Campusano, both swinging.
In the bottom of the seventh, Burger hit a leadoff single, and San Diego then brought in reliever Yuki Matsui. Two pitches later, it was 7-4 on Sanchez’s 393-foot homer to right.
It was Sanchez’s 14th homer of the season but just his second against a lefty.
Donovan Solano, who started his career with the Marlins, hammered a two-run homer in the eighth as a pinch hitter against reliever Andrew Nardi. That cut Miami’s lead to 7-6.
–Field Level Media