On Wednesday, it was a groundball up the middle — a walk-off single with the bases loaded in the 10th inning against the Washington Nationals to snap the Miami Marlins’ season-high-tying eight-game losing streak.
On Thursday, it was a three-run home run in the first inning that gave the Marlins an early lead in their 7-5 win at loanDepot park to secure a series sweep against the Nationals.
Jorge Alfaro’s hot month at the plate continues.
Alfaro’s home run, his fourth of the season, went a projected 417 feet to center field, was his first of two hits on the night and extended the Marlins’ lead at the time to 4-0.
Since Aug. 3, when the Marlins (53-75) moved Alfaro from solely catching to also getting reps in left field and at first base, Alfaro is hitting .300 (21 for 70) with 14 RBI, six doubles, eight runs scored and his first-inning home run on Thursday. He has at least one hit in 13 of 18 starts in that span and seven multi-hit games.
But Alfaro isn’t the only player on a hot streak who had a solid night on Thursday.
Shortstop Miguel Rojas hit a two-run home run in the second and reached base three times on Thursday.
Rojas is hitting .301 (37 for 123) with 18 runs, six doubles, three home runs and 10 RBI in 31 games since the All-Star Break. He has at least one hit in 25 of 31 games and 11 multi-hit games.
Rookie outfielder Bryan De La Cruz had his third career three-hit game on Thursday and is now batting .353 since making his MLB debut on July 30. He has at least one base hit in 18 of his 24 starts.
De La Cruz went 7 for 10 in the three-game series with the Nationals, recording multiple hits in all three games.
And Brian Anderson, who has been sidelined twice with injuries this season, looks like he might be turning the corner. The third baseman has at least one hit in each of his last four starts, including two RBI hits on Thursday.
Anderson also hit a home run and drew a season-high three walks in Wednesday’s win.
ELIESER HERNANDEZ’S START
The strong offense backed up an overall solid night from Elieser Hernandez, who held the Nationals (54-72) to two runs (one earned) over five innings with four strikeouts while allowing six hits and one walk.
Both runs came on a Juan Soto home run in the fifth inning on a fastball over the heart of the plate.
After three relatively quick and easy innings, Hernandez worked out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the fourth by striking out Tres Barrera swinging on three pitches and getting pinch-hitter Lane Thomas to pop out in foul territory on an elevated fastball.
Hernandez’s slider played well. Seven of his 13 swings and misses came on the pitch, including two that resulted in strikeouts.
In three starts since returning from his second 60-day injured list stint of the season, Hernandez has a 3.60 ERA (six earned runs in 15 innings) with 14 strikeouts against four walks. Six of the eight total runs he has allowed in this stretch — two runs have been unearned — have come on home runs.
THIS AND THAT
— Outfielder Lewis Brinson left Thursday’s game in the fifth inning with a left thumb sprain after he collided with De La Cruz going for an Alcides Escobar fly ball in left-center field. Marlins manager Don Mattingly and head athletic trainer Gene Basham ran to the outfield to check on Brinson, with Basham examining Brinson’s left hand before Brinson left the field. Magneuris Sierra replaced Brinson in center field.
— Relief pitcher Zach Pop threw 1 1/3 innings with the Class A Jupiter Hammerheads on Thursday in his second rehab assignment appearance since going on the 10-day injured list with right middle finger soreness. Pop also threw a scoreless inning on Tuesday.
