Jorge Soler, Luis Arraez and Josh Bell hit home runs in consecutive eighth-inning at-bats as the host Miami Marlins defeated the Houston Astros 5-1 on Monday night.
The Marlins hit three straight homers for just the second time in franchise history. They previously accomplished the feat in 1998.
Miami won its third straight game, its longest streak since July 3-5. Houston lost its second game in a row.
Braxton Garrett (7-3) pitched five scoreless innings as the Marlins improved to 18-5 when he starts this year. He struck out just one batter while allowing four hits and two walks.
Soler’s homer was his 29th of the season, and it had a 110 mph exit velocity. Arraez, who leads the majors with a .366 batting average, banged his homer off the right field foul pole. Bell, acquired just before the trade deadline, celebrated his 31st birthday with his 16th homer of the year.
Arraez’s homer was clocked at 103 mph. Bell’s homer traveled at 111 mph.
Framber Valdez (9-8) took the loss, allowing six hits, one walk and four runs (three earned) in 7 2/3 innings for the Astros. He fanned four.
Houston loaded the bases with one out in the second inning as Yordan Alvarez walked and Chas McCormick and Jeremy Pena singled. But Garrett buried a 2-2 slider to strike out Jake Meyers before getting Martin Maldonado on a popup.
Miami, hitless in the first two innings, broke through in the third as Nick Fortes and Jon Berti stroked one-out doubles for a 1-0 lead. Berti then stole third base and scored on a passed ball off the glove of Maldonado.
Houston finally scored in the seventh. Pena hit a leadoff single and reached second on a wild pitch. With two outs, Marlins manager Skip Schumaker brought in lefty reliever Tanner Scott to face righty hitter Jose Altuve, and Scott threw a wild pitch to move Pena to third.
Altuve, who has better numbers this year against right-handers, foiled the strategy by banging an RBI double off the wall in left. Down 0-2 in the count, Altuve was masterful, fouling off four straight pitches and then taking two balls out of the zone before connecting on a low, 98 mph fastball to cut Miami’s deficit to 2-1.
With two on and two outs, Scott got out of the jam by striking out Alex Bregman, who swung and foul-tipped a 2-2 slider.
Miami then exploded for its home run barrage in the eighth, putting the game away.
–Field Level Media
