Holaday's walk-off double in 11th lifts Marlins

MIAMI -- The Marlins haven't had much to cheer about of late. The club got a bit of relief on Saturday night as Bryan Holaday gave them reason to celebrate.
Holaday slapped a double down the third-base line in the 11th inning, scoring Miguel Rojas from second, and the Marlins walked-off the Mets, 4-3, at Marlins Park.
The Marlins had won one of their last 10 games, and Saturday's victory was an uphill climb. They rallied from three runs back, and were backed by 6 1/3 innings of scoreless relief by the bullpen.

"It's definitely something that we needed," Holaday said. "It's tough when you're not winning games. A win like this can definitely spark us, and it makes it a lot better in the locker room, and everybody is able to celebrate a win."
Miami evened the three-game set with New York, with the rubber match on Sunday afternoon.

Off Jacob Rhame in the 11th, Rojas singled and was sacrifice bunted to second by Magneuris Sierra. Holaday, Miami's last available position player, placed his double down the line, and Miami enjoyed its seventh walk-off of the season.
"It was nice to see a little execution there in a couple of different areas," Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. "A lot of times in those games, everybody is trying to hit a homer. Miggy took the ball the other way and got a hit. Mags does his job. Some good stuff happened tonight."

Holaday has two walk-off hits, including a single that beat the Brewers, 4-3, in 10 innings on July 9. The win also came on Dominican Republic Heritage night. This year, Miami is 5-1 on designated heritage nights.
Considering the fact Holaday was the last available position player, and seven relievers were used, Miami's roster was almost tapped. Had the game extended, rookie Brett Graves would have gone the distance.
"That hit was really nice there because it doesn't let that game get extended," Mattingly said.
The Marlins squandered a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the eighth inning against Paul Sewald. Sierra struck out and pinch-hitter Isaac Galloway lined to center.

Dan Straily gave Miami 4 2/3 innings, allowing three runs on four hits, with four walks (one intentional) and five strikeouts. The veteran threw 95 pitches before handing the ball over to the bullpen, which stepped up.
The Mets broke through for three runs in the fourth inning on Todd Frazier's one-out, bases-loaded double. Straily was the victim of some tough luck in the inning, when his full-count slider was called ball four to Brandon Nimmo, filling the bases. Statcast™ tracking showed the pitch should have been an inside strike three.
Frazier capitalized for New York with his three-run double.
"It's frustrating, but honestly, it's part of the game," Straily said of not getting the call. "Some go your way, some go their way. It's hard to swallow sometimes when it is completely over the plate, but at the same time, there's balls we throw that are nowhere near the plate that get called strikes. It was unfortunate that it changed the complexion of the game so much."

Miami chipped back to 3-2 in the fourth inning on Martín Prado's two-out, two-run single to right. And with two outs in the fifth inning, the Marlins tied it at 3 on J.T. Realmuto's RBI single.
"We'll take them however we can get them," Straily said. "That's the whole goal, it's to come up here and put together complete ballgames."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
It started with Jarlín García retiring Nimmo on a grounder to first to end the fifth inning, stranding runners on first and second. Six other relievers did their part as well, as Miami's pen logged 6 1/3 scoreless frames, allowing two hits, two walks while striking out four.
In the eighth inning, left-hander Adam Conley was backed by a terrific play by second baseman Starlin Castro on Nimmo's sharp grounder. Miami turned a double play, and Conley struck out Frazier.

"Everything kind of felt funny today," Mattingly said. "We had to use pinch-hitters early. Areas I wanted a guy to be able to go two innings, he ends up throwing too many pitches. We were just getting thin pretty quickly and getting into some rough spots."
SOUND SMART
All 11 of Miami's extra-innings games have come at Marlins Park.
HE SAID IT
"Let's go extras tomorrow, then. But, I think it's kind of our style. We play all of our games trying to scrape for a run." -- Mattingly, first joking about the team being 7-4 in extra-inning games, and offers a reason why team has succeeded in extras
UP NEXT
The Marlins are hopeful Wei-Yin Chen's home-field advantage continues on Sunday in the series finale against the Mets at 1:10 p.m. ET. At Marlins Park, Chen sports a 1.94 ERA, contrasted with a 10.27 ERA on the road. Noah Syndergaard, who is 4-0 (1.62 ERA) lifetime against Miami, throws for the Mets.