MIAMI _ The audition for the July 10 Home Run Derby has been underway throughout opening week at Marlins Park.
The Marlins' Marcell Ozuna continued his assault on the fences Saturday with his third of the homestand and fifth of the season. It was a monster mash onto the concourse above left field and it came three pitches after Justin Bour popped his first into the first row in right field.
The back-to-back homers, off Jacob deGrom, were a first for the Marlins since Aug. 8. They were the 15th and 16th hit in the first five games Marlins Park, normally a graveyard for long flies.
But there would be more fireworks to come before those scheduled after the game would celebrate a 5-4 Marlins win.
In the eighth inning, the Marlins went back-to-back again against reliever Fernando Salas. Christian Yelich launched a tying two-run shot to right with two outs.
Giancarlo Stanton followed immediately with a homer into the shrubs in center. The 2016 Home Run Derby champ matched Ozuna with his third homer of the week.
It was the second time the Marlins have hit back-to-back homers in a game (the other in 2010).
There have now been 19 homers hit this week at Marlins Park, an average of 3.8 a game. Four players had multi-homer games.
In 2016, Marlins Park yielded only 1.54 homers a game � only San Francisco's AT&T Park was harder to reach the seats (1.47 homers a game) among National League Parks.
All of the long balls turned strong outings by both starters into a footnote.
Aside from the homers by Ozuna and Bour, deGrom mostly overpowered the Marlins while tying a career high with 13 strikeouts.
Mets shortstop Asdrubal Cabrara added a home run off Junichi Tazawa (the third homer off the reliever in five innings this season) in the eighth.
DeGrom got stronger as the game went on, recording most of his strikeouts after the third inning. He recorded all three outs on strikes in three different innings.
Marlins starter Adam Conley had a dominant stretch of his own, retiring 15 consecutive batters before Neil Walker got on with a well-placed bunt to the left side to open the seventh inning.
Conley became the first Marlins starter to go past the sixth this season. But he wasn't able to record an out in the seventh. Curtis Granderson followed Walker with a drive to right-center that ticked off Yelich's glove for a triple.
That tied the game at 2 and ended Conley's night. But Granderson would come home on pinch-hitter Michael Conforto's sacrifice fly off reliever Dustin McGowan.
Conley, who was summoned for emergency duty in the 16th inning Thursday, and served the winning homer to Travis D'Arnaud in that marathon, was much more comfortable in his normal element as a starter.
It took him a couple of innings to settle in, though.
The left-hander began the night with control problems, walking the leadoff man in the first two innings. It led to a run in the opening frame, on Walker's two-out double. He stranded the runner at second the next inning.
After that, Conley was effective and economical, getting most outs on early contact. He recorded only two strikeouts, including getting dangerous Yoenis Cespedes to flail at a fastball up and out of the zone. He got through six innings on 73 pitches (44 strikes).
