Berti among Marlins to step up in 11-inning walk-off win

MIAMI -- A year ago, when injuries piled up on the Marlins, it took a toll on their record. So far this season, guys are stepping up to keep the club on its second-best pace in franchise history.

Jon Berti tallied his first career walk-off hit in the 11th inning and right-hander Bryan Hoeing tossed five hitless innings in Saturday’s 4-3 victory over the Pirates at loanDepot park. Luis Arraez also went deep for the first time at home to keep his average above. 400.

“I think it's just everybody's playing for the guy next to them,” said Hoeing, who walked three and struck out two. “It's not about anybody being about themselves. It's playing for the teammate next to your brother, next to you. We find ourselves in a really good situation here almost heading into the All-Star break.

“I think we're really playing well as a team together. And like we just mentioned, those guys stepping in for each other -- whether it'd be the pitching or the position players -- we've all done a really good job of kind of picking each other up when we need it most.”

Look no further than Miami being without three-fifths of its rotation and not missing a beat.

Hoeing hasn’t given up a run across nine innings since taking over for Edward Cabrera (right shoulder impingement) two starts ago. Lefty Braxton Garrett, who struck out a career-high 13 batters in Thursday’s series opener, began the season as the long reliever and is currently the staff’s most consistent arm with a 2.50 ERA over his last nine starts. Top prospect Eury Pérez has a 0.33 ERA in his past five starts, and he will toe the rubber in Sunday’s finale.

“We really needed [Hoeing] to step up, and kind of like Brax in the bullpen, long man, spot starts,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “And all of a sudden you look up and he's like giving you really quality outing after outing. I don't know where we would have gone, honestly, because he's throwing 95-96 mph sinkers. It feels like he was getting stronger in the third and fourth inning.”

And though the Marlins’ bullpen has scuffled of late -- permitting a run in five straight games for the first time since April 29-May 9 -- the others are picking up the slack. After southpaw Tanner Scott blew the save with two outs in the ninth, with closer A.J. Puk unavailable, righty Huascar Brazoban limited the Pirates to a run in the 10th.

Tasked with facing All-Star closer David Bednar in the bottom half, Jesús Sánchez moved the automatic runner to third with a hard-hit grounder to second, and Garrett Cooper walked to put runners at the corners for veteran Yuli Gurriel, who lifted a game-tying sacrifice fly to center.

Lefty Andrew Nardi bounced back from his previous outing, when he surrendered an earned run for the first time since April 30, by striking out the side in a scoreless 11th. In the bottom half, Nick Fortes executed a sacrifice bunt to advance the automatic runner to third and set up Berti’s heroics.

“There are a few really good baseball plays that sometimes don’t pop up in the box score of how big those plays are,” Schumaker said. “The game usually tells you what to do in those moments.”

Hours before Saturday’s game, veteran Jean Segura took batting practice, fielded grounders and ran as he nears a return from a Grade 1 hamstring strain. Berti has been more than capable in Segura’s absence, starting seven of nine and collecting four multihit games during that span. It’s a role the utility player has successfully served in the past.

With the infield drawn in, Berti was looking for something over the plate and up in the zone. Righty Angel Perdomo obliged with a middle-middle changeup that Berti lined to right.

“I felt like I had a couple at-bats earlier in the game with runners in scoring position that I wish I was able to drive someone in earlier and give us a little bit more of a cushion,” Berti said. “Fortunate to have that final chance there and to be able to come through. Obviously it's a huge win for us. We're looking to take the series tomorrow, and that's kind of our goal, is to win every day, win every series and continue building on the momentum that we have. We have all the confidence in the world in the group we have in here, and so we're just going to keep fighting.”