Rangers Beat Marlins
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MIAMI — Texas Rangers rookie right-hander Nick Martinez, who is from Miami, estimated he had about 100 friends and family members at Marlins Park on Wednesday.
Those Martinez fans were surely elated early and must have gasped in horror late when the Marlins hit two ninth-inning homers off closer Neftali Feliz.
In the end, though, Martinez, pitching in his hometown for the first time in his major league career, defeated the Miami Marlins 5-4.
“This was very special,” Martinez said of beating the Marlins. “I got to pitch in my hometown against a team I grew up watching. That was pretty cool — even better that we came out on top.”
Miami, which trailed 5-2 entering the ninth inning, got late homers from center fielder Marcell Ozuna and pinch-hitter Jarrod Saltalamacchia — both on 1-2 counts.
That drew a visit to the mound by Rangers manager Ron Washington, who was determined to remove Feliz from the game.
“I told him I was about to take him out, but he told me: ‘Give me one more hitter,'” Washington said. “He said it like he meant it, so I left him in. He was convincing. He wanted to get this done.”
Feliz responded by striking out pinch-hitter Jeff Baker on three pitches. And after a walk to
left fielder Christian Yelich, Feliz struck out second baseman Donovan Solano on five pitches to end the game.
“He had left the breaking ball up to Ozuna, and he threw a fastball right where ‘Salty’ was swinging,” Washington said of Feliz’s earlier mistakes. “But (after the mound visit), he found something we’ve never seen before (from him). We saw 96 (mph) a couple times. That let us know it�s in there.”
It was very fortunate for the Rangers that it was in there because had he not retired Solano, next up was National League home runs and RBI leader Giancarlo Stanton, who had stroked a walk-off hit against the Rangers on Tuesday.
“We’re not afraid to make things interesting,” Stanton said of the Marlins, who lead the majors with 11 walk-off hits and 31 one-run victories. “That’s just the way the season has gone. We need to keep that up, but we can’t wait til the ninth inning every time.”
The Marlins (63-63) had their three-game win streak snapped. Given the Rangers’ poor record, it was a damaging blow for the Marlins, who started the day 2 1/2 games back in the NL wild-card race.
Martinez, 24, shut down the Marlins early, holding them to six hits and two runs in six innings, striking out a career-high seven to improve his record to 3-9.
The loss went to right-hander Nathan Eovaldi (6-8), who has won just one game since June 23. The Rangers scored five runs in the first two innings against Eovaldi, who allowed nine hits in five innings.
Hitting stars for the Rangers included right fielder Alex Rios, who had two hits and two RBIs, and center fielder Leonys Martin, who went 3-for-4 with a steal.
But even with the win, the Rangers (49-77) have the worst record in the American League.
Texas opened the scoring with a three-run first inning, a rally that started with two-out singles by Rios and third baseman Adrian Beltre. Rios scored on first baseman J.P. Arencibia’s double to left, and Beltre also came around when Marlins shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria dropped the relay throw for an error.
Martin capped the rally with a run-scoring single.
Texas stretched its lead to 5-0 with a two-run second inning. Rios stroked a two-out double to right, scoring second baseman Rougned Odor, who had singled, and shortstop Elvis Andrus, who had walked.
Miami scored twice in the fourth inning. First baseman Garrett Jones singled and scored from first on Ozuna’s double down the left-field line. Ozuna scored on a two-out wild pitch by Martinez.
Ozuna finished 3-for-4 with a double, a homer and two RBIs. For the season, he has 18 homers and 65 RBIs.
“I’m trying to fix things I was doing wrong before,” Ozuna said of his recent improvement. “I’m focusing on the middle of the strike zone.”
