CHICAGO _ The Miami Marlins had something rolling. Sandy Alcantara settled in enough after a rough first inning that had the Marlins playing catchup early. The offense put together enough to bail out their starter and tie the game. The defense made enough plays to keep the game competitive.
And when they made it to the ninth, they did just enough to start a seven-game road trip with a win.
The Marlins scored three runs in the ninth to defeat the Chicago Cubs 6-5 on Monday night to open a four-game series at Wrigley Field. The Marlins (10-24) snapped the Cubs' seven-game win streak.
It all culminated with a complete effort in the ninth inning.
Down 4-3, Curtis Granderson and Jon Berti led off with back-to-back walks against Cubs reliever Pedro Strop. Neil Walker followed with a single to load the bases. Rosell Herrera then drew the third walk of the frame to bring Granderson home, tying the game and forcing a pitching change. Miguel Rojas scored the go-ahead run on a groundout before Martin Prado provided a much-needed insurance run when he hit a groundball back to Ryan, who threw to first on the force out and scored Walker.
Sergio Romo earned his sixth save in as many opportunities, his lone blemish a solo home run to Kris Bryant.
But for the majority of the game, the Marlins had to play from behind.
The Cubs (19-13) did most of their damage in the first inning, when they attacked Alcantara for three runs on four hits _ including a two-run home run by Anthony Rizzo, the 200th of his career. The 23-year-old starter threw 40 pitches before getting out of the frame.
What felt like the dagger came in the sixth, right after Alcantara exited the game. Tyler Kinley gave up back-to-back walks to Willson Contreras and Jason Heyward before being pulled in favor of Nick Anderson. Anderson walked David Bote to load the bases and then gave up the go-ahead run on a Kyle Schwarber single that barely went over Starlin Castro's glove and dropped into shallow right field.
In between, the Marlins did just about as much as they could to keep the game competitive. They scored two runs in the third on a Brian Anderson RBI double and a Castro sac fly that respectively scored Rojas and Prado. Berti hit his first career major-league home run to tie the game in the sixth.
The defense turned double plays in four consecutive innings, the first three erasing leadoff walks from Alcantara and the fourth limiting the damage in the sixth inning to just one run.
And then, in the ninth, they completed the rally.
The Marlins did just enough.
