Miami Erupts for Seven in Fifth, Buries Chicago 10-3

Miami turned a tied game into a rout with a seven-run fifth inning, sending Chicago home with a 10-3 loss on September 6. The story of the night was a Marlins offense that refused to let Pete Crow-Armstrong's tying home run mean anything.

Miami jumped on Chicago early, plating two in the second on a Mack groundout that scored Marsee and an Otto Lopez single to left that brought home Hernández. Chicago chipped away — Crow-Armstrong's sacrifice fly in the third made it 2-1, and a Hoerner double-play grounder in the fourth somehow scored Bregman to knot it at two. Hernández answered immediately, going deep to left 372 feet to put Miami back in front 3-2 heading into the fifth.

Then Crow-Armstrong did something genuinely stunning: a 403-foot shot to right tied it at three and swung Miami's win probability from 64% down to 48% — a 16-point lurch that briefly made this look like a real ballgame. It wasn't. Miami's fifth inning was a methodical demolition. A hit-by-pitch scored Pauley and loaded the bases, then Caissie singled to right to score Sanoja and Stowers in one swing, pushing the lead to 6-3. Hernández singled to center to score Conine, Mack singled to right to score Caissie, and just like that it was 8-3 before Chicago could blink. Colin Rea was gone after 2.2 innings, having allowed 5 hits, 2 earned runs, and 2 walks — he didn't survive to see the full damage his bullpen absorbed.

Sanoja put the finishing touches on it in the seventh, launching a 388-foot homer to left that scored Lopez and made it 10-3 — the final. On the night, Hernández went 2-for-4 with a homer, 2 RBI, and 2 runs scored; Sanoja matched him line-for-line: 2-for-4, a homer, 2 RBI, 2 runs. Caissie added 2 RBI on his lone hit. Tyler Phillips earned the win with 5.0 innings of work, allowing 3 earned runs on 5 hits. The Marlins look like a team that found something in that fifth inning — whether that translates to anything beyond tonight is a separate question, but for one Sunday in September, they were simply the better team by a wide margin.