On eve of bobblehead day, Yelich delivers walk-off win

Those pesky Marlins keep on giving us fans a reason to tune in every night, this time thanks to Christian Yelich‘s late-game heroics.

In the bottom of the 10th inning Saturday night, after the Cincinnati Reds forced the game into extra innings, Miami’s left fielder smacked a game-winning single into shallow center to score Jeff Mathis from third and give the Marlins a 2-1 walk-off win, evening the three-game series at a game a piece.

After Mathis led off the inning with a rare double off Reds reliever Sam LeCure, Yelich’s one-out hit proved to be the difference after pinch hitter Reed Johnson sacrificed Mathis to third base.

We at Marlin Maniac are hopping on the Yelich bandwagon, and with very good reason. You might even say he is quickly becoming our consensus favorite Marlin, even more so than that one guy.

This was Yelich’s second walk-off hit of the season; his first came on May 22 against the Philadelphia Phillies.

If not for lack of run support, Nathan Eovaldi should have cruised to an easy victory. Instead, his seven-plus innings of one-run, six strikeout ball left him with a no-decision. Eovaldi was pulled in the eighth after surrendering a leadoff base hit to Ramon Santiago. Reliever Bryan Morris was unable to strand the tying run, which eventually scored thanks to a two-out single from Reds center fielder Billy Hamilton.

Three Marlins struck out swinging in the bottom of the ninth, surrounding a Garrett Jones single with one out.

But Yelich came to the rescue again and sent Marlins fans home happy with a chance to win the series on Sunday afternoon.

And the first 12,000 fans in attendance Sunday will become proud owners of one of these babies:

Sunday is also Bark At the Park day at Marlins Park. So, you can bring your doggy to the game, for some reason. And if you are not a Christian Yelich fan (blasphemy!), you can give your canine a new baby-faced chew toy!

At 54-56 the Marlins find themselves six games behind the Washington Nationals for first place in the National League East and five games out of a potential Wild Card birth.