MIAMI — The Miami Marlins’ downfall on Saturday began in the fourth inning. They had a runner on third base with one out against the Atlanta Braves, a prime chance to break open the scoreless deadlock.
Instead, a pair of poor decisions resulted in two outs on the basepaths on the same play.
The Braves took advantage from there, scoring in each of the next three innings to beat the Marlins, 4-3, at loanDepot park for Miami’s third consecutive loss. The Marlins are 17-22, while the Braves improved to 19-21.
We’ll get to the scoring in a moment, but first ... the fourth-inning baserunning.
Jesus Sanchez was on third base after hitting a triple to right field against Atlanta’s Kyle Wright. Bryan De La Cruz was at the plate with the Braves’ infield drawn in.
De La Cruz hit a 1-0 sinker to the left side of the infield. Sanchez began running on contact.
The problem? The ball went straight to shortstop Dansby Swanson, who fired a throw to catcher William Contreras and forced Sanchez into a rundown where he was eventually tagged out by third baseman Austin Riley.
That’s one out.
But De La Cruz tried to make his way to second base toward the end of the Sanchez rundown. Riley threw to first baseman Matt Olson, who then threw to second baseman Ozzie Albies to complete the five-man, four-throw double play and end the inning.
Contreras then hit a solo home run off Elieser Hernandez in the fifth to give the Braves a lead they would not relinquish. Atlanta added two more runs in the sixth on RBI singles from Marcell Ozuna and Adam Duvall — Ozuna’s off Tanner Scott, Duvall’s off Dylan Floro — before Contreras hit his second home run of the game in the seventh against Cody Poteet.
The Marlins scored their only runs on a Jorge Soler RBI double that scored Garrett Cooper from first base in the sixth and a Brian Anderson fielder’s choice that scored Cooper from third base in the eighth. Miami had the winning run on the basepaths with two outs in the ninth after Jacob Stallings walked, Jazz Chisholm Jr. recorded an infield hit and Cooper hit an RBI double, but Soler struck out swinging to end the game.
Hernandez allowed just the one run on three hits and a walk while striking out five over five innings.
