5-year Marliniversary: Fish rally from six down in final three innings to stun Nats

There have been several recent walk-off wins for the Miami Marlins in 2019, but nothing quite as epic as what happened on this day five years ago. On July 28, 2014, the Washington Nationals led 6-0 during the seventh-inning stretch before watching that lead evaporate in a dramatic 7-6 win for the Fish, capped with a four-run ninth.

The Marlins were 51-53 when they hosted the first-placeNationals in the first game of a three-game set. For much of the evening at Marlins Park, it was a pitchers’ duel. A sacrifice fly for Adam LaRoche had accounted for the only run through five innings before Washington seemingly blew things open with five runs in the sixth. Four of those runs came off Miami starter Nathan Eovaldi.

The Marlins finally got to Washington starter Jordan Zimmermann in the bottom of the seventh on an RBI triple by Garrett Jones and an RBI single from Marcell Ozuna.

Miami trailed 6-3 when it came to bat in the bottom of the ninth inning against Washington’s Rafael Soriano . Casey McGehee walked to begin the inning before heading to third on a Jones double one hitter later. Ozuna would plate McGehee on an RBI single before Jones came around to score on a sacrifice fly—the first out of the inning—off the bat of catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

With the score now 6-5, Ozuna advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on Adeiny Hechavarria’s RBI triple to knot the game at six with one out. Soriano’s evening would end just two pitches later with him hitting Miami’s Donovan Solano to put runners on the corners.

Left-hander Jerry Blevins struck out Christian Yelich on five pitches. Then, on the first pitch he saw, Jeff Baker would play the role of hero for the Marlins, plating Hechavarria for the winning run on a two-out walk-off single off the base of the left field wall.

Soriano took the loss while lefty reliever Mike Dunn worked a scoreless ninth to earn the win for the Marlins. The Marlins would win the series the following night with a 3-0 win behind an outstanding start from Henderson Alvarez.

However, that one didn’t quite have the fireworks that the series opener did, which happened on this day five years ago.