With glove and bat, Nick Fortes leads Miami Marlins to walk-off win over San Diego Padres

Catcher Nick Fortes had his fingers all over the Miami Marlins’ 2-1 win over the San Diego Padres on Wednesday even before his walk-off single in the ninth inning.

Fortes made his presence known from behind the plate where he guided starting pitcher Braxton Garrett and a pair of relievers through a two-hitter to keep Miami (29-27) within striking distance despite the Marlins offense missing on its few opportunities until that final inning.

“That’s why I love catching personally and that’s why I’ve always respected the position,” Fortes said, “because no matter how you’re doing at the plate, you can always affect the game in so many different ways.”

That was the case on Wednesday and has been the case for the 26-year-old more often than not over the past two weeks.

Fortes caught a pair of shutouts during the Marlins’ 10-game road trip — a 1-0 win over the San Francisco Giants on May 20 (coincidentally also with Garrett starting) and a 2-0 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday (led by top prospect Eury Perez) — and has started to produce at the plate as well.

On Wednesday, he helped Garrett hold the Padres (25-30) to just one run on two hits and a walk while striking out seven over 5 1/3 innings. He threw 79 pitches, 56 of which landed for strikes. They mixed in all of Garrett’s pitches and found success specifically with his changeup — a pitch Garrett had thrown just 56 times entering Wednesday but used 16 times against the Padres.

The lone run he allowed was on a third-inning solo home run to Gary Sanchez on a 2-2 count.

“He knows me so well,” said Garrett, who has held opponents to four runs over 21 2/3 innings (a 1.66 ERA) with 26 strikeouts against six walks. “There are times that I think maybe I can grab the PitchCom and throw my own pitches, but I just go out there every time and he just knows. I’ll be thinking one pitch and he’ll put another one down and I just trust him.”

Huascar Brazoban followed Garrett with 2 2/3 perfect innings, recording eight outs on just 25 pitches, and Steven Okert struck out three in the ninth to set up Miami’s comeback bid with Fortes delivering the final blow.

Fortes’ game-winning single, a ground ball down the first-base line past a drawn-in infield against Josh Hader, drove in Jean Segura, who tied the game with an RBI double one at-bat earlier and then stole third during Fortes’ at-bat. Yuli Gurriel led off the inning with a walk and moved to second on a Joey Wendle sacrifice bunt.

Segura logged his 500th career RBI with his ninth-inning double. Fortes had his second career walk-off hit.

“Look for a fastball and get on top of it,” Fortes said of his plan of attack against Hader. “We know that his fastball plays good at the top [of the zone] and from the on-deck circle, that’s what it was looking like.”

Dating back to May 16, Fortes is hitting .351 (13 for 37) with two home runs, one double, five RBI and three runs scored in nine starts.

“The bat has started to come alive,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said, “and he’s caught some really good games.”

The game-winning hit came after the Marlins wasted several scoring chances earlier in the game. They hit into three double plays, bringing their MLB-leading total to 62. This included Luis Arraez, who had two hits and a walk in his first three plate appearances, hitting into a double play with the bases loaded in the eighth inning and one out.