Three home runs in a span of five at-bats in the seventh inning changed the tone of the Miami Marlins' 12-8 win Tuesday over the Philadelphia Phillies, from tense opener of a doubleheader to laugher that brought the Marlins to within one game of .500 for the first time since April 30.
Ichiro Suzuki, Giancarlo Stanton and Marcell Ozuna went deep in a matter of minutes to position right-hander Dan Straily for his first personal win of the second half.
And guess which blast went furthest? Yep, the one from the 43-year-old pinch-hitter.
"We don't expect that," manager Don Mattingly said of the long ball.
With the game still tied, Ichiro saw a 3-1 fastball right down the middle from Phillies righty Aaron Nola and sent it into the Marlins' bullpen, landing an estimated 432 feet from home plate.
Then Stanton's fly ball, his 46th homer and 99th RBI of the year, went a mere 346 feet to right. Ozuna followed with a low 377-foot laser to left.
"We've all seen what that man is capable of," Straily said of Ichiro. "Definitely hitting balls that far, it's in there. If you ever watch (batting practice), it's in there. It's almost like he chooses when he wants to do it."
J.T. Realmuto added a long ball of his own, a three-run shot in the ninth.
Nola pitched well until the seventh. He finished with 6 1/3 innings and seven runs allowed, four in the final frame.
Straily, meanwhile, tossed six innings and gave up three runs, a welcomed final line considering his outing began with a 33-pitch, two-run first inning. Straily settled in to strike out 10 _ the third time this year he reached double-digits _ while walking two.
"It was good to get him a win," Mattingly said. "He's pitched well enough to get some wins in there. Just to get that behind him is a good thing.
"It looked like the ball was coming out of his hand good today. His changeup, to me, was good. Good sliders."
The Phillies' only two hits against Straily were home runs: Rookie Rhys Hoskins to center in the first and Cameron Rupp to left in the fifth.
"The ones he was giving up seemed to go a long way," Mattingly said.
Straily also singled in the second inning, a fly ball down the right-field line that landed fair.
"I was really hoping I wouldn't finish the season with one hit," Straily said. "I really didn't think it would come off of Nola. I went up there and took the first pitch, and I was debating if I was even going to swing in the whole at-bat. I decided I was going to swing right there and got lucky and found the line."
Straily offered to pitch longer. He finished his perfect sixth with a swinging strikeout and 107 total pitches, and upon entering the dugout he said to Mattingly, "If you need more ..."
Mattingly's response: "You've done everything we could've asked you to do today."
It's a good thing, too. Ichiro was pinch-hitting for Straily in the top of the seventh when he hit his game-changing homer.
"I looked back over to (Mattingly) like, yeah, there's no shot I could have done that," Straily said.
