The game turned in one inning. Miami led by one heading into the fifth, and four runs later, the outcome was settled. The Marlins beat the Texas Rangers 6-4 at loanDepot park on Tuesday, with a fifth-inning outburst doing the damage that Sandy Alcantara's arm preserved the rest of the way.
Alcantara worked 6.2 innings, allowing 1 run on 5 hits, walking 3 and striking out 4 on 109 pitches. He picked up his eighth win of the season against four losses, carrying a 4.09 ERA. It was a performance that asked the offense to give him a lead worth protecting — and they delivered it emphatically in the fifth.
Joe Mack had provided the go-ahead run in the fourth, homering to right center 395 feet to put Miami ahead 2-1. Then the fifth inning broke open. Owen Caissie homered to right 367 feet, scoring Lopez and Edwards ahead of him to push the lead to 5-1. Mack followed with a single to left that brought Hernandez home, extending the margin to 6-1. Caissie finished 1-for-4 with 3 RBI. Mack went 2-for-4 with a homer and 2 RBI. Heriberto Hernandez added a homer of his own in the second — a 416-foot shot to center — to tie the game at 1-1 after Texas had taken the early lead on Nicky Lopez's groundout that scored Osuna.
Jose Corniell took the loss in his first defeat of the season, lasting just 3.1 innings and allowing 5 runs on 7 hits with 2 walks and 3 strikeouts. His ERA stands at 13.50. Texas made the final score respectable — Brandon Nimmo homered in the eighth and tripled home Langford in the ninth, and Joc Pederson added a solo shot in the ninth — but the Rangers never seriously threatened the lead Caissie's homer had built.
Nimmo, who went 2-for-5 with a homer, a triple, and 2 RBI, is 9 away from 500 career RBI. Pederson, 3-for-5 with a homer, is 2 away from 200 career doubles. Miami moved to 40-39. Texas, which had won two straight entering the game, fell to 38-40.