Rally beasts: Marlins win via 2nd breakout 9th inning

CHICAGO -- If you’re still on the fence about the 2023 Marlins, it might be time to join the club in believing.

For the second time in as many games, the Marlins rallied in the ninth inning to shock the White Sox, this one a 6-5 victory on Sunday afternoon at Guaranteed Rate Field. Miami recorded its 20th comeback win of the season -- the third most in the Majors -- to capture a weekend series that opened a three-city trip continuing on to Seattle on Monday.

The Marlins also improved to 17-5 in one-run games this season, a .773 win percentage. That’s the highest win percentage in one-run games by any team in MLB's Modern Era (since 1900).

“It's one of the beautiful things that I have experienced in my career -- being with a team like this, the way we're playing,” Jorge Soler said via interpreter Luis Dorante Jr. “I know a lot of people don't believe in us, but we do. And we're going to continue to play our ball.”

Down 5-1 entering the eighth, the Marlins scored five unanswered runs across the final two innings to flip the White Sox 97% win probability. It began with Soler and Garrett Cooper going deep in the eighth.

Soler, who sat out a couple of games earlier in the week due to a sore right thumb, continued to make a strong case for his inclusion at the 2023 All-Star Game presented by Mastercard. He blasted a pair of solo shots for his third multihomer game of the season. A two-time World Series champion with the Cubs and Braves, Soler is tied with Aaron Judge for the second-most long balls (19) in the Majors in 2023.

Cooper, who missed time with vestibular issues, has struggled to get going since his return (a .181 average in 20 games entering Sunday). Cooper also had a left elbow scare during Friday’s series opener on a collision at first base, but he tallied the leadoff pinch-hit single in Saturday’s rally and contributed Sunday’s homer that trimmed the deficit to 5-3.

“You can see what [Soler] does when he's healthy,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “He is an impact bat that changes the score. Cooper, we need him healthy, because when he's healthy, he's a middle-of-the-order bat.”

With three outs remaining, an unlikely source kept the Miami magic going.

Jean Segura entered the ninth with 213 homerless plate appearances this season, the third most in the Majors. He last went deep on Sept. 16, 2022, as a member of the Phillies -- that’s 255 plate appearances ago. But he sent a hanging slider from Kendall Graveman off the left-field foul pole to make it a one-run ballgame.

“Felt like we walked it off at that point, the way that they were cheering,” Schumaker said. “I was like, ‘We're still down.’ I didn't say it, but I felt it.”

No worries, Skip.

After Segura’s homer, Nick Fortes grounded out and Jonathan Davis reached on catcher’s interference. Just like the club capitalized on shortstop Tim Anderson’s error on Saturday, Miami made Chicago pay again. Despite Luis Arraez flying out, Soler worked a walk to set up two-out heroics.

Bryan De La Cruz doubled down the line past diving third baseman Yoán Moncada. Davis easily scored, but pinch-runner Jon Berti stumbled rounding third. Luckily, he recovered and just beat the tag at home for the go-ahead run.

“Resiliency, working hard, trying to go out there and compete all the time,” said Soler, who took some of the credit along with fellow veteran and World Series champion Yuli Gurriel for fostering a positive mentality. “We've been doing it for quite a while already. As a team, we want to play until the end of the game and never give up. There's some guys right there that were saying we want a happy flight. Segura hitting the home run, we were calling it before the home run. And then De La as well, he told us that he wanted that at-bat, and he had it, and it was a successful one, too.”

Along with Soler, De La Cruz should receive All-Star consideration. Sunday marked the fourth time in six games he has driven in multiple runs. So excited to deliver in the clutch was De La Cruz that he broke his necklace with an image of his kids on it.

“Before any success, I’ve got to thank God for this opportunity and the success,” De La Cruz said via Dorante. “I was feeling like the adrenaline of the momentum of the game just flowing all over me, and I told the guys I wanted to get that at-bat, I wanted to be like the hero of the game.”