WASHINGTON — Bryan De La Cruz watched as the fly ball curved and inched closer to the left-field foul pole. He knew he had gotten enough of the elevated fastball that was sent his way; he just needed the drive to stay fair.
It bounced off the top of the pole.
Fair ball.
Home run.
The flair for the late-inning dramatics continued.
As does the Miami Marlins’ domination against the Washington Nationals.
De La Cruz’s go-ahead, two-out, two-run home run in the 10th inning lifted the Marlins to a 3-2, extra-innings win over Nationals on Monday to secure a four-game series sweep at Nationals Park. Miami (38-40) is now on a five-game win streak and has won 12 of its 13 games this season against Washington (29-52).
“Just being able to do that with one swing to put your team ahead is a wonderful feeling,” De La Cruz said. “It feels great to just do it for the whole team.”
The Marlins are the first team in MLB history to hit four go-ahead home runs with two outs in the ninth inning or later in the span of nine days.
Nick Fortes did it on June 26 with his walk-off home run to lead the Marlins to a 3-2 win over the New York Mets.
Avisail Garcia did it in the ninth inning Wednesday as the Marlins rallied to beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-3 to start this current five-game win streak.
Jesus Sanchez did it in the ninth inning Sunday in Miami’s 7-4 extra-inning win over Washington.
And now it was De La Cruz, who sent the second offering he received from Tanner Rainey — a 97.9 mph fastball just near the top of the zone — a projected 411 feet to left field.
“It’s been great,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “I’d love to do it earlier and give us a little more breathing room, but we’re going to take wins any way you can get it.”
And Miami needs to keep winning as it continues its push to remain relevant in the playoff race. The Marlins are within two games of .500 for the first time since they were 13-15 on May 8 — the early goings of a month during which they went 7-19 and dug themselves a massive hole in the standings.
By the end of the day Monday, they will be at worst five games out of the third and final National League wild card spot with 13 games remaining before the All-Star Break — two against the Los Angeles Angels at loanDepot park Tuesday and Wednesday, four with the Mets starting Thursday at Citi Field and then a seven-game homestand with the Pittsburgh Pirates (July 11-14) and Philadelphia Phillies (July 15-17) — and 25 games total before the Aug. 2 trade deadline.
“When you win, you just get that feeling,” Mattingly said. “You want to be part of that. We get the big win in St. Louis with Sandy [Alcantara] carrying us and then we’re able to come here and put these games together. You start to feel good about it. I don’t know where it goes. Obviously we’re back at it [Tuesday]. We’ve got to be ready to play with the Angels and try to get another one.”
Braxton Garrett starts it
De La Cruz’s home run also backed what was by far the best outing of Braxton Garrett’s young MLB career.
Garrett threw a career-high 7 1/3 innings and allowed just one run. In 15 career outings before Monday (14 starts), the 24-year-old lefty’s previous career-high was seven innings and he had only pitched beyond the fifth inning twice overall.
But on Monday, on a day when four Marlins regulars weren’t in the starting lineup and the team’s three primary late-inning relievers were most likely unavailable, Garrett stepped up.
“It was in the back of my mind to go a few more innings just for the bullpen,” Garrett said.
He needed just 72 pitches to get through seven innings and only faced one batter above the minimum in that span. He allowed just three hits in that stretch — one of which was erased by a first-inning double play, another when Victor Robles tried to stretch a third-inning bloop single into a double — and retired 14 consecutive batters before walking Ehire Adrianza with one out in the eighth and then giving up a game-tying RBI single to Luis Garcia to end his time on the mound.
He only struck out four, but that’s because he consistently retired Nationals hitters early in counts.
Twenty-one of the 25 Nationals at-bats against Garrett lasted no more than five pitches. He threw no more than 11 pitches in six of the first seven innings.
“He’s been on the verge of having a game like this for two or three starts now,” said Nick Fortes, who has caught each of Garrett’s past five starts. “He just needed to get over that hump, and today that’s what he finally did.”
Bullpen shuts it down
With Anthony Bass, Steven Okert and Tanner Scott all unavailable Monday after pitching in each of the first three games of the series, Mattingly had to rely on his second tier of relievers to finish the game.
They stepped up.
Zach Pop relieved Garrett and immediately let his first two batters reach — a Keibert Ruiz single and Juan Soto pinch-hit walk — to load the bases with one out but got out of the jam with a Lane Thomas pop out and Josh Bell flyout.
Jimmy Yacabonis needed nine pitches to retire the side in the ninth to force extra innings.
Dylan Floro then entered in the 10th with a two-run lead held the Nationals to just one unearned run for his second save in as many days.
“That’s what good teams have to do,” Floro said. “You’re not going to have all of your guys every single day. Sometimes, you’re gonna need some guys to step up and get the big innings and get the big outs. That’s what we showed.”
