It was supposed to be a night for Toronto Blue Jays highly touted pitching prospect Nate Pearson to continue his growth and help his team win their second game in Buffalo against the Miami Marlins.
It was a step backwards, to say the least.
It was the offense and the home run ball that was the story of the night as the Marlins outlasted the Blue Jays, 14-11 in 10 innings.
The night started poorly for Pearson very early. After getting the first two outs of the game, Pearson gave up a walk and then a single, and then Brian Anderson blasted a ball high off the screen in left field to opening the scoring for the Marlins. Anderson homered in both games at Sahlen Field. Pearson then got in more trouble in the third inning, walking in a run and was pulled after just 2.1 innings of work. He finished surrendering five hits and six earned runs. It was 8-0 Miami through their half of the third inning.
But then the comeback attempt was on. Toronto was in “catch-up mode” all night and made the game interesting throughout with seven home runs from six different players in a game that lasted well over four hours.
The Blue Jays got their first runs in the third inning as Teoscar Hernandez hit a two-run home run off of starting pitcher Jordan Yamamoto to left field to cut the Marlins lead to 8-2. The thought of a comeback may have entered the players' heads after slugger Rowdy Tellez hit a ball out of Sahlen Field into the right field parking lot for a two-run home run in the fourth inning, which made it an 8-4 deficit.
Miami’s offense got right back at it in the fifth by adding three more runs as Jonathan Villar had an RBI-single and Jesus Aguilar had a two-run single, in which he was thrown out at second base on the play. By the time the Marlins half of the fifth inning had ended, they had 11 runs on the scoreboard.
The Blue Jays continued to hit the long ball and made it a bit closer in the bottom half of the fifth inning as Travis Shaw continued his good play at Sahlen Field with a two-run home run to cut the Miami lead to 11-6. Then in the sixth inning, catcher Danny Jansen blasted a two-run home run to left field off the screen to make it an 11-8 game.
In the seventh, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit the fifth Toronto home run of the game, as he went opposite field, to cut the Miami lead to 11-9, getting his first hit of the homestand.
Then more deep balls from Toronto came in the eighth as Bo Bichette and Shaw went back-to-back out of the park with solo homers to tie the game at 11-11.
In the 10th inning, Miami grabbed its lead back as Magneuris Sierra blooped a single into right field that scored two runs. Then, Jesus Aguilar got Sierra home on an RBI single that gave the Marlins a 14-11 lead that they would hold on to for the win to split the two-game series.
Toronto's 11 runs were the highest output of the season. The previous team high for runs was six on opening day against the Tampa Bay Rays in a 6-4 win on July 24.
Toronto is off Thursday and opens a three-game set with Tampa Bay on Friday.