MIAMI — The Miami Marlins rallied in the fifth.
And they walked it off in the ninth.
Jesus Sanchez’s sacrifice fly lifted the Marlins to a 5-4, walk-off victory over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday at loanDepot park. It was the Marlins’ first walk-off victory of the season. Miami improves to 22-29, while San Francisco falls to 28-24.
It was the final strike needed after the Marlins erased an early four-run deficit.
Jesus Aguilar led off the inning with an infield single on a hard-hit groundball to shortstop Brandon Crawford. Luke Williams then replaced Aguilar as a pinch-runner. Avisail Garcia was then hit by a pitch on a full count to put runners on first and second. Both runners then advanced 90 feet on a balk before Sanchez hit a ball to center field that scored Williams from third.
After getting shut out through the first four innings with Giants starter Logan Webb holding them to one run and one hit in that span, the Marlins used a four-run fifth inning to tie the game.
Garcia led off the frame with a single to left and scored on a Sanchez double that hit off the wall in left-center field. A Jon Berti single then put runners on the corners.
Berti proceeded to steal second and Sanchez made it home when second baseman Donovan Walton dropped a low throw from catcher Joey Bart to cut the deficit to two runs. A Jacob Stallings groundout advanced Berti to third and Jazz Chisholm Jr. drew a two-out walk and stole second to put the game-tying runs in scoring position and chase Webb from the game.
Garrett Cooper then uncorked a full-count fastball to right field for a two-run, game-tying single. It was Cooper’s second hit of the day.
The inning negated the four runs Pablo Lopez gave up during his seven innings of work on Saturday.
The Giants opened scoring with a Jason Vosler solo home run in the third before Lopez ran into real trouble an inning later. He gave up a double to Joc Pederson and back-to-back walks to Thairo Estrada to load the bases with one out in the fourth before Walton drove all three home with a double to left field.
Lopez retired the final 11 batters after the Walton double. His season ERA is 2.18, third-best in the National League behind the San Diego Padres’ Joe Musgrove (1.64) and Marlins teammate Sandy Alcantara (1.81).
Steven Okert pitched a perfect eighth inning and Tanner Scott pitched a scoreless ninth, working around a one-out Crawford double (after neither Garcia and Sanchez fielded the ball on the warning track in right-center).
