Although the Miami Marlins reside in last place in the National League East, they are the best team in the majors when it comes to walk-off victories.
Fresh off its third straight such win and eighth of the season, Miami will look to ride that momentum into the rematch against the visiting Seattle Mariners on Saturday.
The Marlins opened this weekend series with a 3-2 victory in 10 innings on Friday.
Miami’s walk-off heroes this week have been Vidal Brujan (Tuesday), Otto Lopez (Wednesday) and Tim Anderson (Friday).
“It’s a lot of fun,” Anderson said on Friday after the Marlins produced three consecutive walk-off wins for the first time by this franchise since 1999.
“We just keep good energy throughout the whole game. We never think we’re out of it, and we rally around each other.”
Miami, which is 8-4 this season in extra-inning games, will turn to right-hander Shaun Anderson (0-1, 10.13 ERA) to start Saturday’s game.
Shaun Anderson, 29, is on his seventh MLB team. He is 3-6 with a 6.00 ERA in 66 career games, including 17 starts.
He has yet to face Seattle in his career.
The good news for the Marlins is that they are receiving good work out of their bullpen of late, including five relievers producing 3 2/3 scoreless innings on Friday.
An example of Miami’s excellent bullpen work occurred in the eighth inning on Friday. With the score tied at 2-2, Seattle put runners on the corners with none out.
But reliever Andrew Nardi struck out two batters and Calvin Faucher punched out one to keep Seattle off the board.
Tanner Scott leads Miami with a 1.69 ERA and eight saves. Huascar Brazoban has a 1.93 ERA and Declan Cronin has a 2.65 ERA.
Meanwhile, the American League West-leading Mariners are just 17-22 on the road as compared to 27-12 at home.
Seattle has lost three consecutive games, one shy of its season high set from May 22-25.
The Mariners on Saturday will start right-hander Logan Gilbert (4-4, 2.93).
Gilbert, who was born in the Orlando area and pitched for Stetson University, is returning to pitch in his home state of Florida for the first time since 2022.
It was on May 1 of that year when Gilbert faced the Marlins for the only time in his career.
The Mariners beat the host Marlins 7-3 on that night as Gilbert allowed one run on three hits with four walks in 5 2/3 innings.
This year, Gilbert went 2-0 with a 2.03 ERA in March and April. After slumping in May (1-3, 4.66 ERA), Gilbert has turned it around in June (1-1, 1.66 ERA in three starts).
Mariners manager Scott Servais said Gilbert’s key is his split-finger fastball.
“That’s a really tough pitch,” Servais said, “and there’s no way to game plan for it.”
Offensively, the Mariners are looking from more from the top of their lineup. In fact, the top seven batters in their lineup on Friday combined for just two hits, both singles.
–Field Level Media
