Rookie Otto Lopez delivers again for Marlins in second consecutive walk-off victory
It was an emotional afternoon, yet nostalgic, to be at a baseball game on Wednesday, after everybody had learned that the legendary Willie Mays passed away on Tuesday at 93.
It was also Camp Day at loanDepot Park, but it’s highly doubtful that any of the screaming youngsters even heard of the Hall of Fame icon, but they stood to honor Mays, whose smiling visage was posted on the scoreboard during a pre-game moment of silence.
The Marlins immediately paid their own brand of respect to Mays, the sixth all-time home run leader with 660, when Bryan de la Cruz, leading off for the first time this season, rocked the first pitch from left-hander Matthew Liberatore, a last-minute substitute for starter Kyle Gibson (back tightness), for a prodigious 429-foot home run to left-center field (his 13th) where the 12-time Gold Glove winning Mays used to roam for the San Francisco Giants.
De la Cruz was leading off in place of Jazz Chisholm, a late scratch with hamstring tightness.
Four pitches later, left-handed batter Jesus Sanchez, batting second, crushed No. 6 to dead-center onto the grass 417-feet away to spot the Marlins a 2-0 lead. It was his first homer off a left-hander this season, and the third time this year that the Marlins went back-to-back.
Still, it was tied 3-3 in the bottom of the ninth until rookie Otto Lopez, who was born 25 years after Mays retired, delivered his second walk-off hit in the bottom of the ninth for 4-3 victory over the Cardinals to give Miami two out of three wins in the series. It was Miami’s major league-leading seventh walk-off hit.
“He was super frustrated the first couple of at-bats,’’ Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said of Lopez. “He knew he’d have one more chance at this thing probably in a high-leverage, back-end bullpen situation and he got his shot. Some guys would try to do too much, and he showed the maturity to hit the ball the other way against a really good sinker-slider guy.”
Lopez was 0-for-11 in the series before his game-winning single to right field off Ryan Fernandez (0-2). The hit was bobbled by right fielder Alec Burleson, but there was no way he was going to throw out the speedy Tim Anderson, who had a huge jump off of second base.
“I told myself to get a good at-bat and be more patient and find a good pitch to hit,’’ Lopez said. “It’s not been a good series for me, but I tried to be as positive as I can and work on what I was doing lately.”
The Marlins 2-0 lead didn’t hold up for long as the Cardinals touched up right-handed starter Yonny Chirinos, who was making his first start of the season and first appearance since Aug. 29 with the Braves, for two runs in the second inning.
Nolan Gorman smoked a 436-foot homer, his 16th, also to straightaway center and Brandon Donovan added an RBI single. Chirinos, recently called up from Triple-A Jacksonville, wriggled out of a second-and-third, no-out situation in the fourth, and went five-plus innings, while allowing two runs with six strikeouts and no walks for a no-decision. Tanner Scott (6-5) pitched a scoreless ninth for the win.
The Marlins took a 3-2 lead in the sixth on pinch-hitter Dane Myers’ sacrifice fly, however the Cardinals answered in the seventh when Paul Goldschmidt’s grounder went under the glove of third baseman Jake Burger for a two-base, run-scoring error.
The Cardinals are playing the Giants Thursday at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala., American’s oldest park, to honor the Negro Leagues and Mays, an Alabama native who began his career with the Birmingham Black Barons.
Marlins television broadcaster Tommy Hutton was a huge fan of the ‘Say Hey Kid,’ arguably the greatest all-around player in history.
“My schoolboy friend Tom Schenk was a Mickey Mantle fan, so we used to argue all the time,’’ said Hutton, who had a solid Major League career from 1966-81. “I was playing first base for the Phillies in 1972 and Willie reached first. It was just before he was traded to the Mets. On the big scoreboard at Veteran Stadium, it said ‘Happy Birthday Willie.’ It was May 6 [Mays turned 41]. I wished him a happy birthday and he thanked me.
“I couldn’t wait to call Tom after the game and told him I wished Mays a happy birthday, and he’s still better than Mantle!”
▪ Nolan Arenado was hit by a pitch thrown by reliever Huascar Brazoban and left the game in the eighth with a right elbow contusion.
