On Aug. 27, 2006, the Florida Marlins kept their run rolling in one of the most memorable wins of that season, getting a pinch-hit walk-off double from Mike Jacobs to beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 at Dolphins Stadium.
Florida entered the day on a six-game winning streak, but through 6 1/2 innings it had only two hits against Brewers starter Chris Capuano. Then the game flipped fast in the bottom of the seventh.
Trailing 2-0 after Bill Hall’s two-run single in the fifth, Miguel Cabrera and Josh Willingham opened the inning with back-to-back home runs to pull the Marlins even. Capellán stopped the bleeding after that, but the momentum had already shifted.
Sergio Mitre followed with a 1-2-3 eighth for Florida, and the Marlins wasted no time taking the lead in the bottom half. Hanley Ramírez ripped Danny Kolb’s second pitch down the right-field line for a leadoff triple, and two pitches later Dan Uggla brought him home with a single to make it 3-2.
Joe Borowski couldn’t finish it in the ninth. David Bell led off with a solo homer to tie the game again, and even though Borowski worked around two walks later in the inning, the score stayed knotted at 3-3.
Florida got a chance in the bottom of the ninth after Alfredo Amézaga and Miguel Olivo both grounded out against Brian Shouse. Jeremy Hermida kept the inning alive with a seven-pitch walk, and that brought up Jacobs as a pinch-hitter.
He saw only three pitches, and the third was lined into the left-field corner. Hermida raced all the way home from first, sliding in with the winning run.
The win sealed the four-game series for Florida after it had taken the first two games, and it pushed the Marlins’ winning streak to seven. Both clubs finished with eight hits, with Bell and Willingham each collecting three for their teams.
The 2006 Marlins finished 78-84 and outperformed the low expectations they carried into the season. Against Milwaukee, they were perfect at 7-0 that year, and the only walk-off win in the matchup came on this day 20 years ago.
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The encouraging part for the Marlins is that the stuff is playing in more ways than one. His sweeper has been harder to square up, with a lower slugging percentage against it, and the in-zone whiff rate is sitting near 25 percent, which points to bats missing even when he comes into the strike zone. The walks are still a concern, even if they are trending better, but with Prez now lined up as the No. 2 starter behind Sandy Alcantara, the rotation suddenly has a little more hope baked into it. [Read more 🡒]