ATLANTA (AP) — The Miami Marlins wanted to show they could hold their own against the team that has won three straight NL East titles and swept them out of the playoffs last season.
Even on a night when they squandered a 5-0 lead and surrendered two homers to torrid-hitting Ronald Acuña Jr., the Marlins bounced back for their third straight win in Atlanta, beating the Braves 6-5 in 10 innings on Wednesday night.
Jesus Aguilar drove in the winning run with a leadoff double after Starling Marte was placed at second base, and Yimi Garcia shut down the Braves’ Big Three in the bottom half to preserve the win.
It’s only mid-April, but this one felt a little a little bigger to the Marlins, who were beaten in three straight by the Braves in the 2020 NL Division Series.
“We came back with fire in our eyes,” said Jazz Chisholm Jr., who staked the Marlins to their big lead with a three-run homer in the third. “We’re showing that we deserve to be talked about in this league.”
After Aguilar’s tiebreaking hit against Tyler Matzek (0-1), Acuña led off the bottom of the 10th with a chance to do more damage after erasing Miami’s big lead almost single-handedly.
But Garcia struck out the Atlanta slugger on three pitches, retired Freddie Freeman on a flyout, and whiffed Marcell Ozuna for his second save.
John Curtiss (1-0) picked up the win with a scoreless ninth.
Dropping to 0-3 in extra-inning games this season, the Braves wasted another dynamic performance by Acuña to lose their fourth in a row overall.
“We gave ourselves a chance to win,” manager Brian Snitker said. “As long as we do that, we’ll eventually start winning. There’s no doubt in my mind. This is just a blip on the radar.”
Acuña is on such a tear that a radar would be helpful to keep up with where…
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