MIAMI — It took until the fifth inning, but the Miami Marlins’ offense was finally able to break through against the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner on Saturday to keep their win streak alive.
Miami sent nine batters to the plate and scored three runs against Robbie Ray in that fifth inning to spark the Marlins to a 3-1 win over the Seattle Mariners at loanDepot park. The Marlins have now won seven consecutive games and, at 12-8 overall, posted a winning record in April for the first time since 2016. Seattle dropped to 11-10.
Brian Anderson started the rally with a leadoff ground-rule double that bounced into Miami’s bullpen in left field. He moved to third on a Miguel Rojas flyout and scored on a Bryan De La Cruz ground-ball single past shortstop J.P. Crawford and into right field to tie the game at 1-1.
A Payton Henry walk moved De La Cruz to second base. De La Cruz scored two pitches later on Jon Berti’s single to right field to give the Marlins their first lead of the game.
After a Jesus Aguilar strikeout, Ray walked Jorge Soler and Garrett Cooper in consecutive plate appearances with two outs to force in Miami’s third and final run of the frame.
It backed up a quality start from Jesus Luzardo, who gave up just one run — a solo home run to Dylan Moore in the third — while striking out five over six innings. Luzardo’s fourth strikeout of the night was the 200th of his MLB career.
Through four starts, Luzardo has a 3.10 ERA with 38 strikeouts against nine walks over 20 1/3 innings and has held opponents to one run in three of his four outings. Opponents are hitting just .178 against him.
Anthony Bass, Cole Sulser and Anthony Bender pitched the final three innings, with Bender recording his sixth save of the season.
Up next
The series finale is Sunday, with first pitch set for 1:40 p.m. Sandy Alcantara (2-0, 1.78 ERA) starts on the mound for the Marlins, while Logan Gilbert (3-0, 0.40) goes for the Mariners. Miami is looking for its second consecutive series sweep after winning all three games against the Washington Nationals.
