Braves rally in the ninth to defeat Marlins

Eight years ago today the Atlanta Braves scored seven runs in the bottom of the ninth to defeat the Cincinnati Reds 10-9. History repeated itself on Sunday as the Braves rallied late with a six run rally to defeat the Miami Marlins 10-9 to escape with a series win.

There was no Brooks Conrad this time around but Atlanta found away to get it done. The Braves entered the ninth trailing 9-4 and facing Marlins closer Brad Ziegler. Dansby Swanson struck out to lead off the inning before Ryan Flaherty worked a one-out walk. Flaherty moved up to third on a single by Ozzie Albies to put runners at the corners with one out.

Ronald Acuña Jr. brought Flaherty home with a sacrifice fly to make it 9-5 but with two outs in the inning. Freddie Freeman followed with a ground ball to first but Ziegler was unable to handle the throw from Miguel Rojas. The play was ruled as an infield single for Freeman with Albies scoring on the error to cut the deficit to 9-6.

Freeman took second as the Marlins were basically ignoring him with the three-run lead and scored on a single by Nick Markakis to cut it to 9-7. That would be the end of the night for Ziegler as Don Mattingly would turn to right hander Tayron Guerrero.

Guerrero then walked Tyler Flowers to put runners at first and second. Kurt Suzuki pinch hit in the pitchers spot and jumped on a first pitch fastball for an RBI single to left to make it 9-8. A wild pitch advanced Flowers and Suzuki to second and third before Johan Camargo walked to load the bases.

That again set the stage for Swanson who to that point was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. Guerrero got ahead 1-2 and Swanson fought off a couple of good pitches before jumping on a high inside fastball and driving it into the left field corner for the game winner. Ten men came to the plate in the inning and six of them scored.

Miami took a commanding lead in the fourth inning scoring six times against Julio Teheran including a grand slam home run off the bat of Lewis Brinson. That rally began when Justin Bour lined a ball to center that Ender Inciarte was unable to come up with. Inciarte crashed into the wall on the play and was down for several minutes. Bour would end up at third with a triple. Inciarte was attended to by trainers but stayed in the game initially before exiting in the sixth.

The Braves clawed closer in the sixth on RBI singles by Freeman and Markakis but the Marlins answered back in the seventh with a two-run home run by Rojas to put Miami up 8-2. Atlanta clawed back to within four with a two-run single by Acuña Jr. in the seventh before Rojas homered again in the ninth to put the Marlins up 9-5.

Freeman finished with three hits for Atlanta. Albies, Acuña, and Markakis all had two each. Teheran allowed seven hits and six runs over five innings. He walked three and struck out four.

Atlanta ends their home stand on an exciting note. They will now head back out on the road where they will open a key series against the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday.