Kyle Stowers hit a walk-off grand slam during a five-run ninth inning Saturday, lifting the Miami Marlins to a 9-6 victory over the Athletics at loanDepot park in Miami. The win ended the Marlins’ season-long six-game losing streak and gave them their fourth walk-off victory of the season, which ranked second in the Majors at the time.
Stowers’ swing produced the sixth walk-off grand slam in Miami Marlins franchise history and the first since Giancarlo Stanton hit one on April 18, 2014. It also marked Stowers’ second game-winning hit of the season after he had been the walk-off hero on Opening Day. The Marlins wore their new City Connect 2.0 Retrowave uniforms during the victory.
“We’re not going to take these things off,” Miami Marlins manager Clayton McCullough joked before his postgame media session.
Stowers delivers against Mason Miller
The Miami Marlins trailed 6-4 entering the ninth and faced Athletics closer Mason Miller, who entered the game 10-for-10 in save opportunities that season. Matt Mervis began the inning after being hit by a pitch, but Connor Norby and Dane Myers followed with strikeouts. Javier Sanoja and Ronny Simon then extended the rally before Xavier Edwards walked to load the bases.
Stowers had already hit a two-run home run in the third inning when he stepped to the plate against Miller. He attacked the first-pitch fastball and drove it over the left-center-field wall for the winning grand slam. The 101.7 mph pitch was the fastest pitch hit for a home run by a Miami Marlins player in the pitch-tracking era, which began in 2008.
“Surreal. Blackout,” Stowers said of the moment. “Family was here today: wife and her parents, and some other friends. Always cool to do it in front of people that love and care about me, regardless of whether I’m doing that or not. … I don’t like to say the words, like ‘We needed it,’ but it was a good time for a win. Cool to be in the middle of it. That’s why you play the game is for moments like that. Just to have the opportunity is special. Very grateful to God for that.”
Stowers had hit four home runs since Wednesday, including the first two multihomer games of his career. His batting average rose to .324 after the game, while his OPS reached .944.
Miami Marlins rally in the ninth
Sanoja doubled for the second time in the game after starting at second base in place of Otto Lopez, who was dealing with a Grade 2 ankle sprain. Simon started for late scratch Jesus Sanchez, who was dealing with a back issue, and walked to continue the inning. A wild pitch during Simon’s plate appearance allowed Mervis to score and Sanoja to advance to third.
Edwards then walked to load the bases before Stowers ended the game. He said the Marlins were prepared to attack Miller’s high-velocity fastball and take advantage of the ninth-inning opportunity.
“Ready to hit 102, 103 [mph], whatever it is, and battle anything over the plate,” Edwards said. “He was kind of losing it a bit, control. I don’t know if he usually has good control or not, but he didn’t really have a bunch of it today. So just swing at a pitch we’re supposed to, try to keep it simple, just kind of pass it along. I was saying earlier, I heard them talking on TV about my walk. I was just glad that after my at-bat was over, that the game wasn’t over. There’s really not a worse feeling than that. So I was just glad to be able to pass it along.”
“We won, so it’s a lot of fun,” Stowers said. “Just talking about it today, just how much better the vibes are when the team wins. Obviously the moment was fun, fun for me, too. Since they brought me in, we want to bring winning baseball here, and so we want this good energy, and hopefully we can use this as some momentum and keep rattling off some wins.”
Source: Original report