Field Level Media
Apr 25, 2021
Jesus Aguilar belted a tie-breaking, two-run homer in a four-run ninth inning Saturday night, allowing the Miami Marlins to outlast the host San Francisco Giants 5-2 in a game that featured brilliant performances by starting pitchers Pablo Lopez and Kevin Gausman.
Aguilar's homer, his second of the season, came two batters after the Giants' Gausman was lifted from a 1-1 game after limiting the Marlins to two hits in eight innings.
Reliever Gregory Santos (0-1) walked Magneuris Sierra on a full count to open the ninth, before Aguilar hit the second pitch he saw into the bleachers in left-center field for a 3-1 lead.
In winning for just the second time in its last six games, Miami tacked on when Garrett Cooper singled, Corey Dickerson tripled him home and Jon Berti capped a two-RBI night with a sacrifice fly.
Dylan Floro (1-1), who pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning, was credited with the win.
Mike Yastrzemski launched his fourth homer of the year, a solo shot off Yimi Garcia, to complete the scoring in the last of the ninth.
For the better part of the first eight innings, the game was all about the pitchers' duel between Lopez and Gausman.
The Marlins' Lopez was perfect through four innings before Alex Dickerson led off the fifth with a double. After a Buster Posey walk and a wild pitch, Dickerson scored the game's first run on Austin Slater's infield out.
Lopez escaped further damage when, with one out, Posey on third and the Miami infield in, shortstop Jazz Chisholm Jr. snared Mauricio Dubon's liner and doubled Posey off to end the inning.
Lopez was pulled after six innings, having allowed one run and two hits. He struck out seven and walked one.
Down 1-0, he was on the hook to be the game's losing pitcher until Berti belted a two-out solo home run off Gausman in the seventh. The homer was Berti's first of the season.
Gausman completed eight innings but, like Lopez, wound up with nothing to show for it. He likewise allowed one run, two hits and one walk, but with a career-high-tying 11 strikeouts, matching his feat from last August against Oakland.
Dickerson and the Giants' Brandon Belt were the only players in the game with two or more hits, each going 2-for-4. The Marlins out-hit the Giants 6-5.
The loss snapped San Francisco's two-game winning streak. The Giants had opened a seven-game homestand with 3-0 and 5-3 wins over the Marlins.
--Field Level Media