The Miami Marlins delivered one of their most dramatic innings of the season on Saturday afternoon, erupting for eight runs in the 10th inning to defeat the Tampa Bay Rays 10–5 and snap Tampa Bay’s 11-game home winning streak.
What had been a tense, low-scoring battle turned into a sudden offensive avalanche, with the Marlins capitalizing on a broken inning to take full control at Tropicana Field. Miami’s late surge also marked Tampa Bay’s first home loss since April 21.
The turning point came with the game tied 2–2 in the 10th when Liam Hicks ripped a two-run RBI single through a drawn-in infield off Rays reliever Hunter Bigge. The hit broke the game open, and Bigge unraveled from there, allowing all eight runs seven earned on six hits and two walks in a disastrous inning.
Hicks, who entered the day tied for the major league RBI lead, came through again when it mattered most, giving Miami the lead for good and setting off a relentless rally.
Jakob Marsee sparked the offensive outburst with a three-hit performance, while Javier Sanoja drove in four runs, including a key two-out double in the ninth inning that initially pushed Miami ahead before the game fully broke open later.
Sanoja’s earlier clutch hit came in the ninth off Bryan Baker, driving in Marsee from first base to give Miami a 2–1 lead before Tampa Bay responded to extend the game.
The Rays briefly kept pace thanks to late execution, including Nick Fortes’ RBI single in the bottom of the ninth that tied the game at 2–2 and scored Cedric Mullins, sending it to extras.
Miami’s Pete Fairbanks earned the win in his return to Tampa Bay after seven seasons with the Rays, despite a shaky outing in which he allowed the tying run in the ninth. Fairbanks gave up Fortes’ game-tying single but benefited from Miami’s historic 10th-inning explosion.
The Marlins also got a momentum-shifting blast in the seventh from pinch hitter Heriberto Hernández, who launched a 439-foot solo home run off Garrett Cleavinger to tie the game 1–1 on the first pitch he saw.
Tampa Bay had earlier taken a 1–0 lead in the third inning when Chandler Simpson singled home Taylor Walls on a two-strike pitch, and the Rays’ pitching staff largely held strong through nine innings.
Starter Nick Martinez delivered a solid outing for Tampa Bay, tossing six shutout innings with just one walk allowed and four strikeouts. Miami’s Sandy Alcantara matched him with a strong performance of his own, allowing just one unearned run over six innings while striking out six without issuing a walk.
Despite the strong pitching duel for most of the afternoon, everything unraveled in the 10th, as Miami turned a tight game into a runaway win in a single inning delivering a statement victory over one of the AL East’s hottest teams.
