Griffin Conine homered for the 10th time in his past 28 games to lead the host Miami Marlins to their fourth straight win, an 8-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night.
Pittsburgh is just 1-7 since the Aug. 3 trade deadline passed.
Miami’s Heriberto Hernandez also homered, giving him a team-high 17 this year. He went deep against former teammate Lake Bachar, who was traded from Miami to Pittsburgh last month.
On the mound for Miami, Janson Junk (6-7) matched his career high in wins, holding the Pirates to two runs (one earned) on four hits and one walk two strikeouts over six innings.
Despite missing more than 10 weeks due to injury earlier this year, Conine has 13 homers this season. On Wednesday, he went 2-for-2 with three walks, three runs, an RBI and a double to go with the home run.
Carmen Mlodzinski (6-5) took the loss, allowing five hits, three walks and four runs in 2 1/3 innings.
Pittsburgh opened the scoring with an unearned run in the second. Nick Gonzales stroked a leadoff single and advanced to second on Esmerlyn Valdez’s hit. Gonzales then scored on a throwing error by shortstop Otto Lopez on Jacob Gonzalez’s ground ball.
Miami tied the score in the bottom of the second, loading the bases with two outs before Xavier Edwards picked up an RBI with an infield single. On the play, Pirates first baseman Spencer Horwitz fielded the ball, but Mlodzinski was late covering the bag.
The Marlins knocked Mlodzinski out of the game in the third as Conine doubled and Hernandez walked to set up which set up Agustin Ramirez’s 111 mph RBI two-bagger down the left field line.
Reliever Evan Sisk entered but struggled to throw strikes. Javier Sanoja walked to load the bases and the next three batters each drove in a run: Leo Jimenez (hit-by-pitch), Joe Mack (walk), and Edwards (sacrifice fly). That gave Miami a 5-1 lead.
Pittsburgh cut its deficit to 5-2 in the fourth as Gonzales doubled and scored on a Valdez sacrifice fly. On that play, Marlins center fielder Jakob Marsee made a running catch on a drive that might’ve been a homer if not for his glove.
Miami got that run back in the bottom of the fourth as Conine hit his homer 403 feet to center.
Hernandez made it 8-2 in the sixth with his two-run homer. That was the longest blast of the day at 415 feet.
–Field Level Media
