Miami’s generosity apparently knows no bounds. Now, I am not taking away from the fact that the Red Sox had some big hits or that Payton Tolle and the rest of the staff pitched very well, but watching the Miami Marlins does remind me a little bit of the 2020 Red Sox.
Just like Game 1 of this series, this one felt like a deep-sea fishing adventure, as both teams fought back and forth throughout the game before the Sox finally pulled the Marlins into the boat and put them on ice.
The Red Sox jumped out to an early lead when Mickey Gasper drilled his fourth homer in eight games to make it 1-0. For a while, it looked like that might be the only run the Sox would need because Tolle had some very special stuff early. Miami was held hitless through the first four innings, and none of their at-bats looked particularly competitive.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Xavier Edwards hit a leadoff ground-rule double, and that’s when the altruistic nature of the Marlins really began to kick in. The next batter hit a ground ball up the middle, but Edwards did not read it correctly and hesitated going to third. Anthony Seigler noticed the hesitation and cut down the lead runner at third for the first out of the inning.
Shame, shame, shame!
After the baserunning blunder, Tolle surrendered a single and a walk to load the bases with one out, and Miami finally capitalized with a sacrifice fly to center to tie the game.
The very next inning, Roy Hobbs, I mean Mickey Gasper, hit his fifth homer in eight days to put Boston back up 2-1.
But in the bottom of the sixth, Tolle was touched up again by the leadoff hitter. This time, Heriberto Hernandez crushed a solo homer into the back row of seats in left to tie the game at two.
It remained that way through regulation, although the Fish had a chance in the seventh inning before another questionable baserunning decision cost Miami a run. With one out and a man on second base, Otto Lopez hit a slow grounder up the middle that forced Seigler to range far to his right. His throw across his body was not in time to get the batter at first, but the runner on second came flying around third for the plate, and an alert Willson Contreras gunned him down easily.
In the 10th, it appeared that everything was going to come up roses again for the Red Sox when Marlins reliever Calvin Faucher unleashed a 92 MPH cutter that must have crossed up the catcher because he completely whiffed on the pitch, and it drilled the home-plate umpire square in the mask.
Incredibly, he remained in the game after basically being punched in the mouth, but the play resulted in the second run-scoring wild pitch surrendered by Miami in as many days, and Boston was up 3-2.
However, the good-natured and well-mannered team from the Fens was not going to be outdone by its hosts.
In the bottom of the 10th, with Wyatt Olds on the mound, Andruw Monasterio and Connor Wong combined to give Miami five outs in the inning so the Marlins could tie the game.
The first batter hit an easy two-hopper to short that held the ghost runner at second and should have been the first out of the inning. Unfortunately, Monasterio’s throw tailed into the runner, pulling Contreras off the base. Olds retired the next batter on an unproductive popup to short and then got the following hitter to foul out deep down the right-field line, allowing the runner to advance to third.
That’s where he stood for the first eight pitches of the at-bat by Javier Sanoja. On the ninth pitch, Olds threw a nasty slider down and in to the righty, who swung over the top of it for strike three...
But the ball skipped past Wong’s glove to the backstop, and the game continued, tied 3-3.
Alec Gamboa was summoned to get the last out of the inning, and on to the 11th they went.
The long and the short of the 11th was that Contreras again did the team-first thing by bouncing a ball to the right side as the leadoff batter of the inning. He advanced the runner, and when the first baseman traveled too far to field the ball, Contreras was able to beat the pitcher to first. A walk eventually loaded the bases, and with one out, Jarren Duran did his best Troy O’Leary impression by driving in a few more runs in extra innings...With a grand slam.
The Sox held on and officially put the Marlins on ice.
Hey Mickey, You’re So Fine!
I give up!
I will not question him any longer.
It is clear that Mickey Gasper is the second coming of Mickey Mantle, and I will not fight it anymore. I can’t explain how a 30-year-old career minor leaguer who entered the season with only two career home runs has suddenly become the most dangerous left-handed hitter on the planet.
Clearly, the universe has different plans, and who am I to argue?
Are They Inevitable?
Which brings me to my next rumination. Are the 2026 Red Sox simply...inevitable?
Nothing really seems to make much sense with this team.
They were competing at a historically poor level. They were finding new ways to lose that simply boggled the mind. Half the team wasn’t capable of maintaining a batting average above their own weight, and the run production was nonexistent.
Then something changed.
Apparently out of nowhere, but perhaps it can ironically be traced back to when the actual professionals, or at least the players we thought were professionals, left the lineup and a collection of also-rans and never-weres arrived. Now they are considering bringing one of those guys back! But that is a story for another day.
From there came another historic run, only this time it was filled with victories and home runs, laughter and joy. It is a juxtaposition unlike anything I have ever seen in a single season of watching baseball.
So I have to ask: Do the Baseball Gods have some sort of plan for this team that none of us could see back in March?
Did Chad Tracy simply snap his fingers and alter the course of Red Sox existence? Or is all of this just setting us up for the most spectacular punchline imaginable?
We will soon find out!
Image courtesy of https://www.espn.com/mlb/player/bio/_/id/5132012/mickey-gasper
DriveLine rode away into the sunset and the bats came alive.