Giancarlo Stanton blasted a walk-off grand slam to give the Miami Marlins an 8-4 win on Friday night over the Seattle Mariners.
Stanton now has 26 runs batted in on the year which leads all of Major League Baseball to go along with six home runs. The long ball was hit to center field and came with nobody out in the bottom of the ninth after Miami won their first replay challenge ever. Prior to the at-bat, Marcell Ozuna had seemingly grounded into the first out of the inning on a bunt attempt. However, manager Mike Redmond challenged the call when Mariners' third baseman did not have proper control of the ball on a transfer to his throwing hand. The umpires back in New York saw evidence of just that and reversed the call setting up the bases loaded, nobody out situation for Stanton.
It was a moment of redemption for the Marlins' slugger who had misplayed a ball that led to two runs earlier in the game. It was Stanton's second error of the year was costly at the time as it tied the game at two. Still despite the error and even before the blast, Stanton had a big game reaching base four times. The right-fielder was intentionally walked twice and also singled twice with the first hit coming on what appeared to be an unintentional-intentional walk by Seattle. The pitch Stanton hit was outside but close enough to take a swat at.
Other hitters chimed in for Miami in a 13 hit barrage for the team with Jarrod Saltalamacchia sending a blast of his own out earlier in the contest. The Marlins' catcher put a ball into the upper deck in right field which is territory not visited often at Marlins Park. It was Saltalamacchia's second home run as a Marlin and his first at home. Christian Yelich also had a big day picking up another three hits to lift his average to .338 on the year.
Nathan Eovaldi started the game for Miami and turned in a quality start allowing only one earned run in his three innings of work. A total of three runs did score off Eovaldi but those other two were on the aforementioned Stanton error. Eovaldi struck out four and walked two to go along with seven hits allowed.
The Marlins will try to make it two in a row on Saturday when Henderson Alvarez takes the mound.
