5-year Marliniversary: Stanton’s 490-foot blast in eighth lifts Fish past Phillies

Over his eight years in South Florida, Giancarlo Stanton and dramatic home runs were an iconic duo. Yet another one of those came on this day five years as his two-run blast in the eighth inning broke a tie at Marlins Park on May 6, 2016 and lifted the Miami Marlins past the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-4.

Miami opened the scoring with a two-run home run from Yelich in the first before adding two more in the second on RBI singles from J.T. Realmuto and Martín Prado.

The Phillies battled back during the middle innings. Maikel Franco got the Phillies on the board with an RBI double in the third and drew them even with a solo home run in the fifth. In the fourth, Peter Bourjos came through with a two-run double to cut the Miami lead to one.

The Philadelphia bullpen had just gotten a scoreless inning from Andrew Bailey as Hector Neris came on to pitch in the bottom of the eighth. Entering the contest, Neris had just a 1.04 ERA and promptly started his night by getting Prado to ground out.

Four pitches later, he was in a two-run hole.

After Christian Yelich singled, Giancarlo Stanton came to the plate. Stanton took the first pitch for a ball. The next pitch traveled 490 feet off his bat. Neris’ pitch was middle-in and Stanton hit it out to left field to give the Marlins a two-run lead.

Neris put two more men on base before getting out of the jam, but the damage was done. Stanton’s blast ended a streak of five straight scoreless innings from the Phillies’ staff. David Phelps pitched a perfect ninth to pick up the save for Miami.

Stanton’s home run served as the longest in Major League Baseball to that point in 2016 and would finish the season as the second-longest blast behind only Stanton’s 495-foot shot hit at Coors Field three months later. More importantly, it lifted Miami to victory and it came on this day five years ago.