BRONX, N.Y. – The Marlins put a halt to the Yankees’ red-hot momentum, pulling out a rare 5-2 win on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium.
In his third start as a Yankee and second at home, pitcher Marcus Stroman was undone by a four-run third inning — three of them on a Jake Burger home run. He went five innings, allowing those four runs on four hits while walking four and striking out seven.
Down three in the ninth inning, New York (10-3) worked a rally to load the bases with two outs following a Jon Berti single and walks from Anthony Volpe and Juan Soto. The right man was at the plate for the Yankees in Aaron Judge, but Marlins closer Tanner Scott coaxed a flyout to center field to secure Miami’s (2-11) victory.
After trading zeroes with Marlins starting pitcher Ryan Weathers over the first two frames, Stroman walked Nick Gordon before Nick Fortes singled to put runners at the corners with no outs. Luis Arraez snuck a single past the left half of the infield to score Gordon and put the Marlins on the board. After Josh Bell struck out, Burger cleared the bases with a three-run shot to left field to break it open.
“Just thought that he had a hard time getting real good in his delivery,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of Stroman. “First three innings for him, just a little out of rhythm. [His] stuff was good, he’s getting a lot of swing-and-miss.”
To his credit, Stroman put up back-to-back 1-2-3 innings in the fourth and fifth innings while striking out three.
“Little chilly, windy night, I think he was kind of battling his delivery there,” Boone said. “I
thought he actually kind of rectified a little bit there in the fourth and the fifth and kind of settled in, but the first three innings for him just a little out of rhythm and didn’t have that great feel that he’s had with all these pitches.”
The Yankees failed to respond in the bottom half of the fourth inning when Anthony Volpe and Juan Soto hit back-to-back two-out singles, but Aaron Judge grounded to third to eliminate the Bronx Bombers’ threat.
Weathers managed to navigate through the Yankees offense for five scoreless innings, allowing three hits and three walks while striking out one.
Giancarlo Stanton got the Yankees on the board in the sixth when he hit a 110.5-mph home run into the right-field bleachers off reliever Bryan Hoeing. The closest the Yankees came to closing the scoring gap was in the eighth inning when Volpe was issued a walk, and Soto followed up with a double that tucked into the right-field corner, scoring Volpe.
In the ninth, Miami added an insurance run. Tim Anderson and Nick Gordon were on with one out as Fortes hit a routine groundball to short for Volpe, but a low throw could not be scooped by first baseman Anthony Rizzo, allowing Anderson to score the Marlins’ fifth and final run of the night.
