Miami Marlins capitalize on two Los Angeles Angels errors to win in extra innings

Two errors paved the way for the Miami Marlins to score four runs in the 10th inning en route to an 8-5 series-clinching win over the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday night at Angel Stadium.

The Marlins, who also beat the Angels 6-2 on Friday, improve to 27-26 on the season. The Angels fall to 28-25.

“We don’t panic,” utility player Garrett Hampson said. “We’re never out of it, and when the moment comes, it seems like we come through, which is awesome.”

Miami’s rally started when Garrett Cooper, pinch-hitting for Joey Wendle, lofted a first-pitch slider from Jamie Barria to left-center field with one out in the inning. Angels left fielder Mickey Moniak dropped the ball, allowing Luis Arraez (the automatic runner to start the 10th inning) to score, Yuli Gurriel (who was given an intentional walk) to move from first base to third base and Cooper to reach second.

After the Angels intentionally walked Jon Berti to load the bases, Jacob Stallings tapped a groundball back to the mound for what appeared to be an inning-ending double play.

But catcher Matt Thaiss wasn’t touching home plate when Barria threw the ball to him and the play was overturned after a review. Gurriel scored on what became a fielder’s choice.

Hampson then scored Cooper and Berti with a single to left-center.

“Some good insurance runs to make it a little easier for us to close it out,” Hampson said.

The Angels got one run back in the bottom of the 10th on a Gio Urshela RBI single against Bryan Hoeing but got no closer.

The crazy 10th inning capped a game in which Edward Cabrera held his own opposite superstar Shohei Ohtani and Jorge Soler had yet another clutch home run.

Cabrera held the Angels to three earned runs on four hits and four walks while striking out five over 5 2/3 innings. Two of the three runs he was charged with came after he exited the game, with Thaiss hitting a two-run single to left against Matt Barnes, who inherited runners on second and third from Cabrera to put the Angels up 3-2. The Angels also scored on a Brandon Drury RBI double in the fourth.

Soler then belted his team-leading 17th home run of the season in the seventh against Angels reliever Chase Silseth. It was his fifth consecutive game with a home run, one shy of the Marlins’ franchise record set by Giancarlo Stanton in 2017 to give Miami a 4-3 lead that lasted an inning and a half before Urshela hit a game-tying home run against Steven Okert.

Ohtani pitched six innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on six hits and three walks while striking out ten. The Marlins scored their two runs against Ohtani on RBI singles from Gurriel in the first inning and Arraez in the fifth.

Meanwhile, Marlins manager Skip Schumaker spent the back half of the game trying to patch together a pitching plan. Several relievers were unavailable due to their recent workload. Tanner Scott had thrown three days in a row. JT Chargois had pitched back-to-back days for the first time since returning from an oblique strain, as well. And Andrew Nardi had gone back-to-back days and three of the past four days overall.

So Schumaker went with Barnes to finish the sixth, Huascar Brazoban and Steven Okert for the seventh and eighth, and then Dylan Floro in a tied ninth inning to get the game to extra innings before turning the game to Hoeing for the 10th.

“He was emergency only,” Schumaker said of Hoeing. “We had three guys available—ish. We’re looking at this game and trying to figure it out and looking at each other like ‘All right, what are we doing?’ You trust your guys, but as a manager and as a coach, you try to put them in the right spot to success, but sometimes you’ve just gotta go with what you’ve got. They did a really good job overall.”