Kyle Stowers belted two solo homers and Ryan Weathers tossed five strong innings in his season debut to lift the visiting Miami Marlins to a 3-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday.
Stowers, who also had a triple, went deep in the second and fourth innings for his third multi-homer performance in his last 13 games. He owns a team-high 10 homers and has four in his last five games.
Weathers (1-0) allowed one run on two hits and struck out five batters in his first start since being sidelined with a left flexor muscle strain in March during spring training. He tossed 51 of his 76 pitches for strikes.
Miami rookie Agustin Ramirez also launched a solo shot among his two hits. Xavier Edwards added a single to extend his hitting streak to eight games for the Marlins, who salvaged the finale of the three-game series.
Three relievers bridged the gap to Jesus Tinoco, who rebounded from taking the loss Tuesday to retire the side in order in the ninth to secure his fourth save of the season.
Jameson Taillon (2-3) allowed three solo homers after being taken deep a career-high four times in his previous start. He permitted three runs on four hits with seven strikeouts over six innings to fall to 3-1 in his career against the Marlins.
Seiya Suzuki homered leading off the fourth to account for the Cubs’ run.
Stowers deposited a 2-0 cutter from Taillon over the left-center field wall to open the scoring in the second. Ramirez doubled the advantage in the fourth when he sent a 1-2 sweeper from Taillon over the left-center field wall.
Stowers gave Miami a 3-0 lead two batters later, pulling an 0-2 fastball from Taillon just inside the right-field foul pole.
Suzuki put Chicago on the scoreboard by sending a 3-2 changeup from Weathers over the wall in center for his 11th homer of the season.
–Field Level Media
