Blue Jays take advantage of Marlins baserunning mistakes

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Dominant starter Eury Perez exits game early and Miami Marlins run themselves out of rest of the game.

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Published May 27, 2026 • Last updated 57 minutes ago • 4 minute read

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Xavier Edwards of the Miami Marlins steals second base against Andres Gimenez of the Toronto Blue Jays during the third inning of Wednesday’s game. Getty ImagesArticle content

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There’s aggressive baserunning and there’s what the Miami Marlins attempted Wednesday afternoon.

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Based on the results, the Marlins went a little overboard with their desire to create chaos on the basepaths at the Rogers Centre and the Jays were only too happy to take advantage, earning a 2-1 series-clinching victory largely on their ability to defend the run game.

Counting an attempted swipe of third base that resulted in a pickoff, the Marlins tested the Jays defence with their legs on nine different occasions and all it got them was a loss in a game where a little patience — Miami out-hit the hosts 11-5 — could well have made the difference.

Jays catcher Tyler Heineman joked with the media that he was a little late to his post-game media responsibilities because he had to ice down his arm based on the number of times he was tasked with gunning down baserunners.

Heineman made eight throws and pitcher Jeff Hoffman made the ninth, getting Heribarto Hernandez on the pickoff at third to end the sixth inning with the Marlins threatening.

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The Jays catcher was credited with throwing out four potential base-stealers, including Hoffman’s successful attempt at third. With that Heineman tied the team record of four runners caught stealing in a single game, set by Jose Molina in Tampa Bay back in 2010.

It wasn’t a complete shutdown got Heineman and the Jays. The Marlins, who lead the majors with 67 steals, managed to swipe four, two each by Jacob Marsee and Xavier Edwards.

The previous MLB catcher to have such a busy and successful game was Arizona’s Miguel Montero in 2011 when he threw our four in a game.

“They definitely had a plan to run and, you know, they ran,” Heineman said afterwards.
“Pretty much all of them can run.”

Of course, none of that was news to the Jays, even before the series began. All of Major League Baseball is aware of how steal-happy the Marlins are and teams prepare for them. The Jays were no different.

“Mostly DeMarlo Hale and Drew Butera,” Heineman said of two members of John Schneider’s coaching staff who deserved credit for the prep work on the Marlins. “They do a really good job of just saying: ‘Hey, they like to go in two-strike counts. They like to go on first pitch. So, knowing that and then having that information beforehand kind of puts all that in the forefront of your mind. So then when the situation arises, you are already thinking along with them and you know this particular guy is probably going to try and run here.”

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The sheer volume of the attempts and the lack of success the Marlins had is what made Wednesday’s game so unique.

Heineman officially gets the credit for the caught stealings but the guys on the receiving end, particularly at second base — where it’s either Andres Gimenez or Ernie Clement — also deserve their flowers. Heineman made sure they got them.

“Gimie (Gimenez) and Ernie are two of the best middle infielders that I’ve thrown to,” Heineman said. “Especially now with the challenges we have, you’ve just kind of got to get the throw off and on the bag or close to the bag and sometimes the (baserunner) slides off and they have some fantastic tags. There was one that Ernie had today that the ball skipped and he ended up coming off the bag.”

“That’s more on him than it was me, so it’s really nice to have guys up the middle that can handle the baseball very well.”

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What was also nice, specifically for Heineman, was the chance to make a positive contribution in a win, something he has not had a lot of in the past month and a half.

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“To do something to help the team win feels good,” Heineman said. “But it’s baseball and it’s just a matter of time before things start to turn around.”

eineman’s struggles began about a month and a half ago when some overzealous base-running earned him a rebuke from his manager and cut into his playing time.

“It’s just a really nice feeling to have some success,” he said.

Toronto got a little lucky in this one as well when Marlins flamethrower and starter Eury Perez was forced to leave the game after just four innings with a right hamstring spasm.

Through four innings Perez had scattered three singles while striking out nine of the 12 he retired, most of them on pitches surpassing 100 mph.

The Marlins owned a 1-0 lead when he left, but Nathan Lukes erased that with a two-out RBI-double, driving home Heineman.

Kazuma Okamoto put the Jays ahead to stay in the sixth inning with his 11th home run and first since May 5.

It was a little payback for the Jays third baseman, who took a 97-mph two-seamer square in the back earlier in the game.

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Kevin Gausman got the start or Toronto and, while he didn’t have his best stuff, he gutted out five innings to keep the Jays in this one.

Hoffman, with an inning and a third scoreless, picked up the win while Tyler Rogers earaned his second save with the Jays choosing to use closer Louis Varland in the eighth against the middle of the Marlins lineup.

With the win, the Jays crawled back to within two games of .500 and have won three of their past four series, while splitting the other one.

The Jays head back out on the road where they open a four-game series against the Orioles in Baltimore starting Thursday.

mganter@postmedia.com

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