BOSTON — The Miami Marlins scored five consecutive runs following a nearly 75-minute rain delay to break open a tie game and then held on to beat the Boston Red Sox 6-2 on Wednesday at Fenway Park.
The Marlins improve to 47-34, going 13 games over .500 for the first time this season. It’s the second-best record in franchise history at the halfway point of the season, behind only the 48-33 record by the 1997 World Series-winning team. The Red Sox fall to 40-41.
Miami clinched the three-game series after winning the opener 10-1 on Tuesday. The series finale is scheduled for 6:10 p.m. Thursday.
The game went into a rain delay in the top of the sixth inning, with Miami having runners on first and second base with one out in a 1-1 ballgame and Jazz Chisholm Jr. facing a 1-2 count. Chisholm struck out on the first pitch after play resumed but Garrett Cooper drew a walk to load the bases.
Miami scored the go-ahead run when Jorge Soler came home on a wild pitch. Jean Segura then hit a chopper up the middle that shortstop David Hamilton couldn’t glove, allowing Bryan De La Cruz to score from third and Cooper from second.
Chisholm gave the Marlins insurance with a no-doubter of a home run in the eighth inning — his eighth home run of the season and first since returning from a six-week stint on the injured list due to turf toe. Luis Arraez hit an RBI groundout in the ninth to cap scoring for Miami.
Here are three takeaways from the game.
Rain delay ends another great Braxton Garrett start early
The game went into a one-hour, 13-minute rain delay in the top of the sixth inning, effectively ending left-handed Braxton Garrett’s start.
Garrett held the Red Sox to just one earned run — a solo home run from Rafael Devers in the fourth inning. He allowed two other hits and a walk while striking out two and threw just 66 pitches.
Garrett has now pitched at least five innings and allowed no more than two earned runs in eight of his past nine starts. In that span, he has a 1.98 ERA (11 earned runs in 50 innings) with 64 strikeouts against nine walks.
Wednesday was the second time this season that Garrett was on the mound when a rain delay happened. Garrett pitched three shutout innings on April 27 against the Atlanta Braves before the teams endured a three-hour, one-minute rain delay at Truist Park. Miami won the game 5-4.
Huascar Brazoban (1 2/3 innings), Andrew Nardi (1/3 inning), Tanner Scott (one inning) and Dylan Floro (one run over 1/3 inning) and A.J. Puk (2/3 innings) threw four innings out of the bullpen.
Double-digit home runs for Garrett Cooper
With his leadoff home run in the second inning, Marlins first baseman/designated hitter Garrett Cooper has 10 home runs on the season, which is second on the team behind only Jorge Soler (21).
This marks just the second time in Cooper’s MLB career that he has recorded double-digit home runs in a season. The other came in 2019, when he hit a career-high 15 home runs. Cooper hit nine home runs in each of the past two seasons.
The latest on Luis Arraez
Marlins second baseman Luis Arraez extended his hit streak to 11 games with an infield single in the seventh inning.
His batting average, however, dropped to .396 because he only went 1 for 5, hitting into groundouts in the first, sixth and ninth innings (although the ninth-inning groundout drove in a run) and a flyout in the third.
