MIAMI -- Jesús Sánchez is not your typical leadoff hitter.
But with Xavier Edwards sidelined with a left-mid back strain, the Marlins have elected to go with Sánchez, a left-handed slugger who entered Monday with a career 96 OPS+ and .308 on-base percentage, due to his career OPS vs. righties (.772).
In the Marlins’ 8-7 comeback victory over the Cubs on Monday night at loanDepot park, Sánchez became the first Major Leaguer with a leadoff homer and a walk-off RBI in the same game in 12 years (Alex Gordon on June 26, 2013).
“That was a position that was given to me, so I'm just enjoying that position and just treating it like I'm batting second,” Sánchez said via interpreter Luis Dorante Jr.
With the Marlins trailing 7-6 with two outs in the ninth, Derek Hill doubled to the right-center gap and Javier Sanoja walked. Up 2-1 in the count, Sánchez sent righty Daniel Palencia’s 98 mph four-seamer down the right-field line for the game-winning two-run triple.
It marked Miami’s sixth walk-off victory of the season, tied with San Francisco for the most in the Majors. The Cubs walked off the Marlins last Tuesday at Wrigley Field.
“I was looking for a fastball all the way,” Sánchez said. “101, 102 [mph]. It was just fastball after fastball. And then I was just thinking, ‘Just get ahead and get on top of that fastball.’ And he did it, and I was able to do it.”
The walk-off heroics capped what was a historic night of Marlins baseball.
Sánchez and Agustín Ramírez went back to back in the bottom half of the first inning -- the first time Miami has done so this season. It was just the fourth time in franchise history the Marlins had gone back to back to open a game:
- June 19, 2024 (Bryan De La Cruz/Sánchez)
- Aug. 27, 2010 (Cameron Maybin/Logan Morrison)
- July 11, 2008 (Hanley Ramirez/Jeremy Hermida)
Both homers were the first 110-plus mph taters for Miami this season; the club had been the last team without one.
Sánchez rocketed right-hander Ben Brown’s center-cut fastball over the center-field wall for his first career leadoff homer. He also became the first player in franchise history to hit a leadoff home run on a 3-0 pitch, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, and the first Major Leaguer to accomplish the feat since the Rangers’ Marcus Semien (Aug. 9, 2022, at Houston).
Ramírez then lifted Brown’s four-seamer over the left-center-field wall for his sixth homer. Ramírez, who has hit second in the order behind Sánchez in three of the past four games, hasn’t noticed a difference in the way he is being pitched.
“They go outside with a slider, then they go in again and back out, and that's constantly the way they've been pitching to me,” Ramírez said via Dorante.
When starter Edward Cabrera surrendered Miguel Amaya’s three-run homer, which glanced off left fielder Kyle Stowers’ glove in the fourth, Miami bounced back in a four-run fifth that included RBI knocks from Liam Hicks, Sanoja, Sánchez and Otto Lopez. With Edwards sidelined, Sanoja has started all four games in his absence, though Lopez is projected to move from second to short for Wednesday’s series finale.
Despite batting leadoff, Sánchez wound up with three opportunities with runners in scoring position: He singled in the fifth, struck out in the seventh and walked it off in the ninth, going 3-for-5 with two runs and four RBIs. Sánchez also stole a base to record his first game with both a homer and a steal.
“You've seen over the last week to 10 days it turning some for him,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “Him and our hitting guys have really been working hard to flatten him out a little bit, and I think that's helped [him] get into some pitches. His timing is better. You see him start to catch some balls out in front.
“We all know he can hit a fastball. Any time Sánchy comes up there, you feel good about that at-bat, you feel good about him in a spot that can be productive for us.”
So what happens when Edwards returns?
“I love X in the leadoff spot,” McCullough said. “It's a different dynamic. X's ability to see pitches and get on base and be a threat on the basepaths -- and he probably works most days, Sánchez behind him there. So I love what X brings out of the leadoff spot. It's a little different with Jesús, but I think right now with where we're at vs. [righties], Jesús is doing a lot of good things for us.”