MIAMI _ It was a night the great Chicago Cub Ernie Banks would have enjoyed.
Let's play two? The Marlins and Cubs nearly did Friday at Marlins Park.
Miguel Rojas' two-out single in the 17th inning drove in Brian Anderson for a 2-1 Marlins victory.
Each team scored a run in the third inning and couldn't buy a trip home after that.
Pitching set the tone early with strong starts from the Marlins' Caleb Smith and the Cubs' Kyle Hendricks.
Smith was elevated to start the second game of the season for the Marlins due an injury to Don Straily.
The left-hander, making his third big-league start, made the most of the opportunity in holding a quality Cubs lineup to one run in 51/3 innings Friday at Marlins Park.
With eight strikeouts, Smith tied Jose Fernandez and Dillon Peters for second-most in the first game as a Marlin. Mark Redman fanned 10 in his debut in 2003.
Smith didn't figure in the outcome, but did his job in passing a 1-1 game to the bullpen.
Remarkably, it stayed that way until the 17th inning when back-to-back singles with two outs brought Brandon Morrow in to face Rojas. He lined a 1-0 pitch into center field for the winning hit.
Odrisamer Despaigne, who was scheduled to start Saturday's game, was summoned in the 17th to finish this one. He got the win.
The Marlins' bullpen was superb, holding the Cubs to one hit after the sixth until Kris Bryant singled in the 15th. Marlins pitchers combined for 18 strikeouts.
Jarlin Garcia retired all 15 batters he faced from the 10th through 14th innings and escaped a bases-loaded jam in the 15th, his sixth inning of work, with the helped a nifty double play started by Derek Dietrich.
A reliever last season, Garcia is in the process of transitioning back into a starter. The lefty showed in this outing that he may be ready for the role.
Smith showed his aptitude at the beginning of a long night.
Acquired from the Yankees in a low-profile trade along with outfielder Garrett Cooper, Smith had a standout Triple-A season on his resume but had to endure a winter of looking at that 7.71 ERA on his ledger from nine appearances (two starts) for New York last September.
This spring he was erratic but showed glimpses of the promise that prompted the Marlins to trade for him. He also was working on a slider, which served him Friday.
He also showed some mettle in the 100-pitch outing, which ended with Kyle Schwarber swinging through a slider for Smith's eighth strikeout.
After allowing a leadoff single in the sixth, Smith fell behind Schwarber 2-0, but battled back to prevent the inning from turning into trouble.
Smith didn't have a 1-2-3 inning, but he also didn't allow more than one hit in an inning.
One-out hits caught up to Smith in the third inning when he regrettably threw a fat fastball over the plate to Bryant despite being ahead in the count 1-2.
Bad idea to a hitter of Bryant's stature. The 2016 National League MVP smashed it deep into the seats in left.
Smith had pitched around one-out doubles to Bryant in the first and Ben Zobrist in the second. He also walked Addison Russell with one out in the fourth.
But Smith showed the ability to deal a strikeout when he needed one. He did so to end each of the first four innings.
Smith also avoided repeating his earlier mistake to Bryant. Next time he got ahead of the Cubs third baseman, he struck him out with a slider low and away.
Smith's tenacity was essential as the Marlins could do little with Kyle Hendricks either, or against the parade of Cubs relievers that followed.
Lewis Brinson got his first hit as a Marlin after an 0-for-6 start with a single to center in the third. He then scored the tying run on Starlin Castro's single to left.
Castro initially balked at moving to Miami in the trade for Giancarlo Stanton. The veteran second baseman has made himself at home quickly, especially at the plate.
Brinson had hits in four consecutive at-bats, all singles. But the Marlins struggled to produce any offense after the third.
The last Marlins rookie with four or more hits in a game was J.T. Realmuto, who had four hits on June 5, 2015 at Colorado.
Brinson also made an outstanding catch on Russell's sinking liner in left-center to end the top of the 10th, closing quickly on a ball tailing away from him.
Miami lost rookie right fielder Cooper, who left the game in the fourth after being hit on the right wrist by Hendricks. Fortunately for Cooper, it was only a bruise. He's listed day to day.
The Marlins had the bases loaded in the eighth after Cubs reliever Carl Edwards, Jr., walked Cameron Maybin and Miguel Rojas. But Chad Wallach struck out to leave them loaded.
Wallach, the rookie catcher is off to a rough start, going 0-for-10 in the first two games with eight strikeouts. He struck out in his last four at-bats Friday.
The Marlins withstood a threat in the top of the ninth when Parkland's Anthony Rizzo came up with two on and two out and hit a deep fly to center, but Brinson ran it down. Marlins closer Brad Ziegler had given up a two-out single to Albert Almora, Jr., and hit Bryant.
Dietrich, at first base, made the game-saving play in the 15th when the Cubs loaded the bases with one out. Dietrich grabbed Jason Heyward's hard smash down the line, stepped on first and threw home to complete the double play.
