MIAMI – Cubs catcher Miguel Amaya set up in front of the plate, ready to make a last-ditch effort to save the game. The Marlins’s tying run crossed. Then the winning run, a couple steps before Amaya received the throw, relayed from the right-field, and swept a tag behind him just in case.
Jesus Sánchez’ walk-off triple off Cubs reliever Daniel Palencia wiped away what had been a banner game for Amaya, and the Cubs dropped the first game of the series at loanDepot Park 8-7.
“He probably got a little tired, honestly, as the inning went on,” manager Craig Counsell said. “He’s been working really hard and doing a heck of a job.”
Palencia, who has pitched three of the last four days, was on the mound in the ninth because Porter Hodge was dealing with a left oblique issue, Counsell revealed after the game. Hodge is expected to go on the injured list.
“At this level of baseball, you have to execute your pitches,” Palencia said after the game. “That didn’t happen tonight. …I feel sad to not help the team tonight.”
Up until the last pitch, it looked as if Amaya, who drove in all but two of the Cubs’ runs Monday, was going to be the biggest factor in the game.
His strong start to the season has flown under the radar, as fellow catcher Carson Kelly put up MVP-like numbers in the first month and a half of the season. But as Kelly’s bat has cooled slightly, Amaya’s has heated up.
He had a three-hit game against the Marlins last week. And his home run and double Monday brought his season OPS to .852.
“Just watching him fly is awesome,” said starting pitcher Ben Brown, who allowed six runs in 4 2/3 innings Monday. “ I’m really proud of him, and I love throwing to him.”
Before Amaya’s offensive heroics, he guided Brown past about as poor of a beginning to a start as possible.
Brown fell behind against the Marlins’ first two hitters, Jesús Sánchez and Agustín Ramírez, and came back over the plate with a fastball, which both hit out for a solo home run each.
Brown retired the next 12 batters he faced, striking out the side in the fourth inning.
In the top of the fourth, Amaya gave the Cubs the lead. With runners on first and second, he lifted a first-pitch curveball from Marlins starter Edward Cabrera deep to left field. Stowers tracked it back to the wall and leapt, reaching over. The ball tipped off his glove for a three-run homer.
The next inning spiraled on Brown. He surrendered a leadoff double, RBI triple, and a trio of one-run singles before handing the ball over to left-handed reliever Caleb Thielbar with two outs in the inning. The Cubs had quickly gone from a one-run lead to a 6-3 deficit.
Michael Busch led off the sixth inning for the Cubs with a walk. Then Dansby Swanson, Nico Hoerner and Ballesteros singled all in a row, pushing across one run and loading the bases for Amaya.
Amaya ambushed a first-pitch sinker, lining it into the left-field gap past a diving Marlins left fielder Kyle Stowers.
Swanson and Hoerner scored easily while center fielder Derek Hill collected the ball off the wall and threw to the relay man.
Moises Ballesteros, who had been breathing down Hoerner’s neck for the last 180 feet, slid across home soon after him, seemingly beating the throw. A replay review reversed the safe call, but Amaya’s two-run double still had tied the game.
The Cubs took the lead soon after. Amaya, who had reached third on the throw, scored standing up when Matt Shaw bounced an automatic double over the right-field wall.
Out of the bullpen, Thielbar, Ryan Pressly and Drew Pomeranz held the Marlins through the eighth inning. Palencia retired the first two batters he faced.
Then he hung an 0-2 slider to Derek Hill for an automatic double.
“He’s such a competitor,” Amaya said. “He’s a warrior out there. It was just a missed pitch in the middle of the zone.”
Palencia then walked Javier Sanoja and threw a fastball over the heart of the plate to Sánchez.