One after another, Miami Marlins hitters stepped up to the plate in the fourth inning and strung together quality at-bats and gave Miami a much-needed lead in its series finale against the Washington Nationals.
Eleven batters. Eight baserunners. Six hits, four with two outs. Six runs scored.
The Marlins kept tacking on runs afterward, and they needed the insurance to withstand three Nationals rallies and hold on for an 11-8 win at Nationals Park on Monday. The win clinched the five-game series and has the Marlins leaving the nation's capital with a winning record at 12-11. Miami and Washington split the first four games of the series. The Nationals dropped to 11-15.
The road trip continues with the Marlins playing four games in three days against the New York Mets at Citi Field, starting with a doubleheader on Tuesday to make up their game that was postponed last week at Marlins Park after two members of the Mets organization tested positive for COVID-19. Miami will be the home team for the second game Tuesday.
When they get to New York, the Marlins will look to build on their offensive outburst against the Nationals.
That brings us back to the fourth inning.
Brian Anderson led off the frame with a single against Nationals starter Austin Voth to center field. Jesus Sanchez flies out to right for the first out before the next three Marlins hitters reach base.
Voth then plunks Jorge Alfaro to put two on. Jonathan Villar, hitting eighth in the lineup, rips a ground ball up the middle to bring home Anderson. Miguel Rojas then walks to load the bases before Jon Berti pops out to first base for the second out.
Five more Marlins came to the plate and five more runs scored before the inning came to an end.
Matt Joyce's single to right field scored Alfaro and Villar and chased Voth from the game. Jesus Aguilar's double off the wall in center field scored Rojas and Joyce. Corey Dickerson's line drive to right field scored Aguilar. Anderson recorded his second base hit of the game before Sanchez flew out for the final out.
For context of how big that inning was, the Marlins scored fewer than six runs in 18 of their 22 games, including nine consecutive contests before Monday.
Jon Berti added to the tally with a two-run home run in the seventh. Alfaro and Rojas each drove in runs in the eighth.
Joyce, Dickerson and Aguilar each had three hits. Villar, Anderson, and Berti all had multi-hit games as well. Rojas drew three walks. Aguilar drove in three runs, including a bases-loaded walk in the third to open scoring.
Nine of Miami's 11 runs came with two outs.
They needed just about every one of those runs. Pablo Lopez cruised through four scoreless innings before having to work around a pair of defensive miscues in the fifth.
Third baseman Brian Anderson had a throwing error on a Yan Gomes groundball to start the inning and then Berti failed to track an Eric Thames high fly ball in shallow center that resulted in a double. A Victor Robles sacrifice fly and three consecutive one-out singles by Adam Eaton, Juan Soto and Howie Kendrick gave Washington three runs.
All three of those runs were unearned, however, so Lopez's earned run average dropped to 1.98, which is the 10th-best mark in baseball through Monday's slate of games.
Soto, who went 4 for 5, tacked on another run for Washington with an RBI double as part of a two-run seventh. Eaton hit a three-run homer in the eighth to cut Miami's lead to three.
