Miami Marlins 5, Milwaukee Brewers 6: The Long Walk (off)

The Miami Marlins provided many noteworthy heroics, but none were as heroic as Jesus Aguilar’s walkoff homer.

The Miami Marlins jumped out to an early lead, on Derek Dietrich‘s (2) one-out solo homer in the top of the first. In the second, Lewis Brinson followed singles from Justin Bour and Cameron Maybin with his third long-ball of the series (and the season).

Miami’s 4-0 run was cut into in the bottom of the frame by Travis Shaw (4) who went deep to center with a solo shot. Milwaukee added two more in the fourth on an Eric Thames RBI-single and an Eric Sogard RBI-groundout to get the Crew within a run.

In the top of the fifth, Brian Anderson collected his team-lead-sharing 11th RBI of the season on a two-out single to right.

With the 5-4 advantage, Jose Urena had positioned himself for his first win of the season. He pitched five innings in total, allowing four earned runs on two hits and four hits. He got 59-of-99 pitches into the strike zone and earned a 43 GameScore. In his first game of the season since joining the Miami Marlins, Nick Wittgren pitched a scoreless sixth.

After Drew Steckenrider pitched a scoreless seventh inning, Kyle Barraclough came in for the eighth. He walked Shaw and Thames with two outs. On Sogard’s two-out at bat, left fielder Dietrich misjudged a fly ball, allowing Shaw to score the tying run. Despite the error on the play, Bryan Holaday got the third out of the inning on a perfect catch-and-tag of Thames.

Aguilar made his game debut leading off the bottom of the ninth in a pinch-hitting role. He worked reliever Junichi Tazawa to a full count on a 12-pitch-at-bat. On the 13th pitch, Aguilar cranked a no-doubt, pinch-hit walkoff home run to right-center field. It was his first round-tripper of the season. You can find more on the game here.

A few thoughts

• It was the third multi-homer game of the season for the Miami Marlins, but the first such game in which the two homers were hit by different players.
• Starlin Castro had his second three-hit game of the season, raising his average to .300.
• Brinson’s third homer of the season was a three-run shot, giving him seven RBI for the season. A 1-for-4 day overall, Brinson struck out three times and watched his average improve to .157.
• Tagged with the loss, Tazawa watched his ERA grow by almost a run, to 7.15.
• Miguel Rojas drew the only Marlins walk, while Marlins pitching issued four.

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Heroes of the Day

It wasn’t all bad for the Miami Marlins. The WPA statistic tells us who performed well in higher leverage situations.

Brian Anderson +.173

Anderson struck out swinging to close the first inning (-.010). In the third, he doubled to left with one out (+.026), but was stranded on Maybin’s flyout. He hit an RBI-single to right in the fifth, with two out and a man on second (+.107). He drew first by HBP in his last plate appearance, with nobody out in the eighth (+.051).

Drew Steckenrider +.112

Steckenrider struck out Jeff Bandy to open the seventh inning (+.050). After giving up a hit to Hernan Perez (-.054), he induced a 5-4-3 double play out of Lorenzo Cain to end the inning (+.115).

Nick Wittgren +.090

Wittgren pitched a scoreless sixth inning in his season debut. He opened by getting Eric Thames to fly out (+.041), then struck out Sogard (+.029). After allowing Jonathan Villar to single (-.023), Villar was gunned down trying to steal second by Holaday (+.042).

Lewis Brinson +.059

Brinson hit a three-run homer in the first to give the Marlins a 4-0 lead (+.153). He then proceeded to strike out in the fourth (-.014), the sixth (-.019), and the ninth (-.062).

Derek Dietrich +.052

Dietrich’s solo shot in the first gave Miami a 1-0 lead (+.095). He flew out to right to end the second with a man on first (-.012). In the fifth, he flew out to center for the second out of the inning (-.018). He struck out to end the seventh (-.014) in his final plate appearance.

Next: Brewers Host Marlins Preview

Tomorrow, Caleb Smith (0-2, 6.89) will make a start against Junior Guerra (1-0, 0.82) starting at 2:10PM. Thanks for reading tonight’s recap report. Keep it bookmarked at Marlin Maniac, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.