Marlins' bats come alive to avoid series sweep in 13-7 win over Dodgers
MIAMI (AP) — The rout-filled Dodgers-Marlins season series ended Thursday afternoon, and look who's laughing now.
Last-place Miami turned the tables on NL West leader Los Angeles, winning 13-7 despite giving up four home runs, including Cody Bellinger's 40th.
"It wasn't a good day of pitching for us," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
Despite the drubbing, the Dodgers increased their homer total this week at pitcher-friendly Marlins Park to 14, a franchise record for a three-game series. Max Muncy hit his 29th, Corey Seager his 12th and Kyle Garlick his third.
Bellinger, who began the day tied with Christian Yelich and Mike Trout for the major league lead, reached the 40 mark for the first time with a three-run shot into the upper deck in the seventh inning to cut the deficit to 13-7.
Los Angeles had won the previous five games against Miami this year by a combined score of 45-9, including a margin of 33-2 in the past three games.
But the Marlins averted a three-game sweep and won the season's final matchup between the teams with the best and worst records in the National League.
"It feels good, man," said center fielder Lewis Brinson, who contributed three RBIs and a pivotal defensive play. "That's a good team over there. Their record and all their numbers show it. We just said we've got to fight every at-bat against these guys, because they're a good squad. That's exactly what we did."
The Marlins won without hitting a home run while totaling 13 hits and six walks.
"Obviously it took a lot of hits to get those runs, but that's who we are right now," manager Don Mattingly said.
Brinson, Brian Anderson, Starlin Castro and Jorge Alfaro each had three RBIs, and Jon Berti scored three times as the game literally became the latest laugher in the series. Castro wore a grin crossing the plate in the fifth to make it 7-1.
The last time Marlins had four players with three or more RBIs was in 2006.
Caleb Smith (8-6) needed 106 pitches to get through five innings but allowed only one hit and one run — on Garlick's homer in the fifth.
Walker Buehler (10-3) allowed five runs in four-plus innings. It was a rare lapse for a rotation that entered the game with a 1.69 ERA this month.
"A breakdown of everything I do well," Buehler said. "Not a good one. Never fun to put our team in a situation like that."
The longest nine-inning game in the eight-year history of Marlins Park took 4 hours, 7 minutes.
Anderson drove in the game's first run with an RBI bloop single in the first. His two-run double in the fifth made it 4-0 and knocked Buehler out of the game.
The Marlins' first seven batters reached in the fifth, and six scored. Brinson's two-run double made it 8-1.
Brinson also charged to making a diving, inning-ending catch in center field and rob Seager of an RBI single in the fourth.
"Any runs you can take away from that team definitely feels good," Brinson said. "I don't know how I caught that ball, but it stayed in the glove."
MILESTONE
Bellinger became the first player to reach 40 homers this year after hitting 39 as a rookie in 2017.
"It's pretty cool," he said. "There's still a lot of baseball left to be played, so I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing, and hopefully more to come."
PUZZLING SPLITS
Buehler is 5-0 with a 2.33 ERA at home. On the road he's 5-3 with a 4.37 ERA.
"I'm trying to figure out what the difference is," Buehler said. "I felt good today. I just didn't put the ball where I wanted it."
TRAINER'S ROOM
Dodgers RF Kristopher Negrón (nose and forehead bruises and abrasions) left the game when he did a face plant in a vain attempt to catch Brinson's double. Concussion tests and X-rays were negative.
UP NEXT
Dodgers: RHP Kenta Maeda (8-8, 4.12) is scheduled to start the opener of a three-game series at Atlanta on Friday. Maeda last faced the Braves in 2017 but has won both of his starts against them.
Marlins: A six-game trip begins Friday with All-Star RHP Sandy Alcantara (4-10, 4.44) scheduled to start at Colorado. In his past eight starts, Alcantara is 0-4 with a 7.29 ERA.
