The Marlins have not beaten their in-state rivals in a season series since 2018. They got things started on the right foot on Friday.
MIAMI, FL—Two-out magic was the name of the game for the Miami Marlins in their series-opening win against the Tampa Bay Rays. They scored four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning and four more in the sixth on their way to a 9-4 final score. It was the Marlins’ biggest margin of victory since April 13.
When the Marlins acquired third baseman Connor Norby from the Baltimore Orioles last season, they brought in a highly rated prospect who really impressed through his first 36 games with the organization. After somewhat of a slow start in 2025, Norby has heated up and finished Friday’s game going 2-for-4 with three RBI. He is now slashing .264/.304/.425/.729 with two home runs and nine RBI.
The Marlins were one strike away from wasting a bases-loaded opportunity in the fourth inning, but rookie catcher AgustÃn RamÃrez worked an eight-pitch walk to give the Marlins a 2-1 lead.
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That brought up Norby. Going into his at-bat, he had been 3-for-18 with runners in scoring position. In a 2-2 count, Rays starter Taj Bradley went with a splitter, which Norby hit 102.6 mph into left field, clearing the bases and giving the Marlins a 5-1 lead. This marked his fifth multi-hit game of the season.
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“I haven’t been great in those spots,” said Norby following the game about coming to the plate with RISP, “so that swing was obviously huge at that point in the game, but it’s going to happen again for everyone else. Whether you get the job done or not, you’re going to learn from the good or bad and as long as we keep putting ourselves in those spots, we’re going to win a lot of games.”
The Marlins offense has been at its best with two outs. Going into Friday’s game, as a team, they had been slashing .254/.338/.421/.759 in those situations (compared to .244/.309/.382/.691 overall). They have produced more than half of their total runs this season (92 out of 182) with two outs.”
For a while, it seemed like we were cashing in a whole lot on those opportunities,” said Marlins manager Clayton McCullough. “To count on the two-out RBI, the odds aren’t really in your favor and we continue to stress the more opportunities that we give ourselves—the more rallies we start, the more pressure we can put on the opponent. We will come through. Creating as many of those opportunities you can and tonight, we were able to both create the opportunities and also cash in.”
Eric Wagaman, who went hitless in the prior series against the Chicago Cubs and had a .513 OPS during the month of May, knocked in two runs for the Marlins. In the bottom of the first, a sac fly drove in the first run of the game and he added another insurance run in the sixth inning, following Kyle Stowers‘ RBI single with his own.
“Wags has been going through it a little bit on the results part,” said McCullough. “Carson (Vitale) talked to him quite a bit. Our hitting guys have talked to him and it’s nothing about the swing or mechanics. It’s just, ‘take a step back, take a breath, we believe that you’re a major league player and a really good hitter.'”
Despite being struck by two comebackers in the top of the fourth inning, Marlins starter Max Meyer was solid, going five innings, allowing four runs on six hits, no walks and seven strikeouts.
The first comebacker was a 112.7 mph base hit by Yandy DÃaz, which hit Meyer’s right ankle. The second hit Meyer’s right thigh at 90.0 mph. He said postgame he was fine. “Guess I’m just ugly. The ball just finds me,” Meyer said jokingly.
One thing worth noting in his start was that his slider, which opposing hitters seem to have begun picking up, was hit extremely hard, with the five balls in play averaging an exit velocity of 96.0 mph exit (max of 106.2 mph). On the other hand, six of his seven strikeouts came on that slider.
“Stuff felt really sharp,” said Meyer. “Later on, probably leaned off the fastball a little bit. Should have went back to it, but I can’t complain with how I feel right now. My stuff feels good. I’m starting to tighten everything up, so now it’s just pick the right counts to throw certain pitches and I think we’ll straighten out.”
For the first time this season, Marlins starting pitchers were credited with a win in back-to-back games.
With the win, the Marlins are now 17-26 on the season while the Rays fall to 20-24. Sandy Alcantara will take the mound on Saturday. This will be Alcantara’s first time facing the Rays since 8/29/23, where he surrendered four runs. That same season, he tossed a complete game shutout. First pitch is at 4:10 pm and it is Cuban Heritage Day at the ballpark.