Duvall (2 HRs) provides 'instant' offense

CHICAGO -- When Adam Duvall goes on one of his hot streaks, the rest of the Marlins’ lineup comes along for the ride.

Duvall went deep twice and drove in six as the Marlins' slumping bats broke out in a 10-2 win over the Cubs on Friday night at Wrigley Field. Miami had scored seven total runs during its four-game skid, which was snapped in the series opener.

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“Obviously striving for this every day,” said Duvall, who reached base four times for the second time this season. “It's not attainable, but that's what I strive for. I strive to impact the game in a positive way and be a guy that we can lean on to drive in runs and play good defense. It's definitely gratifying whenever you can have games like this and contribute in a way that you strive for every day.”

Miami improved to 10-2 when Duvall, its sole offensive free-agent signing over the offseason, homers. The offense averages 7.3 runs in those games. Duvall entered Friday with a .345 average with runners in scoring position, and eight of his last 14 hits have gone for extra bases (two doubles, six homers).

So it was an easy decision for manager Don Mattingly to capitalize on Duvall’s hot bat in the cleanup spot. Friday’s performance gave him 48 RBIs, putting him two behind the Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. and one behind teammate Jesús Aguilar for the most in the National League.

“It's just instant,” Mattingly said. “It happens fast. You guys see it. You know with Duvy, it's like when it's hot, it's hot. And it's not usually solos, it's usually multiples it feels like, it's multiple runs. And when he hits one, there's usually another one in the bag there; either that night or the next day, it seems like it's coming. When he gets hot, it just adds to the mix. His is kind of instant hot, and I think that just kind of changes games like he did today.”

Duvall’s evening began with a groundout to short in the second inning, but he watched footage of the at-bat before his next time at the plate and saw he was in a good position to be successful. Duvall was right, as he capped a five-run third against Zach Davies with his fifth career grand slam. It salvaged what was setting up to be another opportunity wasted. After Starling Marte walked with the bases loaded, Aguilar was unable to add on when he popped out to second. But Duvall deposited a homer over the left-field wall to give Miami the big inning it had been missing.

Entering Friday, the Marlins had slashed .244/.231/.378 with a .609 OPS with the bases loaded. The only other grand slam had come off the bat of Isan Díaz, who was optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville prior to the game as the corresponding roster move with the return of Miguel Rojas.

“I thought Duvy's first home run was huge from the standpoint of we get the one run, and then we leave one,” Mattingly said. “Those are the kind of innings we've been not really taking advantage of. It was good to be able to take advantage of that, then be able to kind of keep tacking on some runs later.”

Jon Berti, who will see the majority of the time at third base with Díaz sent down and Brian Anderson on the 60-day injured list, knocked a three-run homer to left-center field with two outs in the sixth against Davies. Duvall added a two-run tater to left off Dan Winkler in the seventh for his team-leading 14th homer. Miami entered Friday having scored nearly half of its runs in 2021 with two outs (42.3 percent, 110 of 260). All but one of its RBIs Friday -- Marte’s bases-loaded walk -- came with two outs.

This marked Miami's best production on the road since a 14-8 win on April 13 in Atlanta, where Duvall last recorded a multihomer game. Matchups outside of South Florida have not been kind to the Marlins of late, as the club had dropped 10 of 11. Friday matched the club’s largest margin of victory on the season.

“We got down a little early there,” said Berti, whose first MLB homer was at Wrigley Field in 2019. “Cody [Poteet] battled I thought, and then obviously for us to put some good at-bats together, and then Duvy putting an exclamation point on that inning with the grand slam, kind of put us off to the races. We just continued to battle throughout the game and put good at-bats together up and down the lineup.”