‘Quitting is not an option’: Marlins back at .500 after Alfaro’s walk-off vs Giants

Jorge Alfaro, mired in a hitting slump since returning to the Miami Marlins’ lineup after dealing with a left hamstring injury, was really just looking to drive a baseball into the outfield.

Nothing more complex than that.

He’s still not at full-speed when it comes to running the bases, trying to remain cautious that he doesn’t aggravate the leg injury that still isn’t 100 percent.

If he was going to help the Marlins finish off their latest comeback victory, it would have to come with his bat.

And he delivered.

Alfaro scorched a 1-0 pitch from Jarlin Garcia to the left-field wall for a two-out, walk-off double to lift the Marlins to a 7-6 win over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday at loanDepot park.

Teammates mobbed Alfaro in the infield. Miguel Rojas poured a Dubble Bubble tub filled with water over Alfaro’s head. They walked together to the dugout, Rojas clinched to Alfaro’s back, to continue the celebration as Alfaro clasped his hands and looked up toward the sky.

The win clinches the best-of-3 series for the Marlins, who won the series opener on Friday, and improves Miami to 7-7 on the season.

The Marlins have a chance to sweep the series on Sunday at 1:10 p.m.

“Quitting is not an option,” Alfaro said. “It’s not a choice. We just have to go out there and compete.”

Alfaro’s double, his first extra-base hit of the season which had an exit velocity off the bat of 110.8 mph, scored Adam Duvall and Jazz Chisholm Jr. Duvall was the automatic runner on second to begin the 10th, part of MLB’s extra-inning rules. Chisholm drew a one-out walk to reach base for the fifth time on Saturday.

The Marlins hope this is a turning point for Alfaro, who Marlins manager Don Mattingly has said multiple times is their primary catcher this season. Alfaro has hits in six of his eight games so far this season, but he struck out six times in his first nine at-bats after missing a week due to the hamstring injury.

“He’s a guy that’s tooled up,” Mattingly said. “You know that’s there and that’s a huge upside. ... As a coaching staff, that’s one of the things you fight for, trying to help this guy get better.”

As Alfaro said, quitting is not an option.

“I understand the road has a lot of obstacles,” Alfaro said. “You have to go through the obstacles. That’s pretty much how I felt coming back again. You’ve got to start over and you’re crawling and then after that you start walking and now I’m looking to just run.”

The ninth-inning rally

Before Alfaro’s game-winning hit could happen, the Marlins rallied from down two runs in the bottom of the ninth to get to extras and had a pair of spectacular defensive plays in the top of the 10th to only be down by a run in the bottom of the 10th.

Chisholm started that ninth-inning rally with a single, moved to third on a Miguel Rojas single to center and scored on an Alfaro single to cut the deficit to one run with no outs.

Jon Berti and Corey Dickerson popped out for the first two outs before Starling Marte tied the game with a groundball RBI single up the middle that scored Magneuris Sierra, who pinch-ran for Rojas.

“Nobody’s trying to be the hero,” Dickerson said. “We go out there and pass the baton, trust the teammate behind you in a big spot.”

Jesus Aguilar walked to load the bases, but Duvall’s weak flyout to right ended the threat and sent the game to extra innings.

It did, however, undo San Francisco’s five-run seventh, in which the Giants (8-6) scored on a a pair of home runs (Brandon Belt off Sandy Alcantara; Austin Slater off Richard Bleier) and a Brandon Crawford double.

Alcantara went 6 1/3 innings and was charged with four earned runs (two of which came on the Slater home run against Bleier) on six hits. He struck out seven and did not walk a batter.

Duvall opened scoring with an RBI triple in the first. Aguilar added a two-run double for Miami in the sixth.

Dickerson tied a career-high with four hits. Chisholm reached base five times.

Ross Detwiler and Zach Pop threw scoreless eighth and ninth innings to keep the game within two runs before the Marlins rallied in the ninth.

Strong defense late

Yimi Garcia held the Giants to one unearned run in the 10th on a Belt RBI double that scored Slater.

He was aided by a pair of defensive plays.

First, with runners on the corners and no outs, Alfaro fielded a dribbling bunt from Anthony DeSclafani and made a perfect throw to second base for a forceout.

Then, with two outs and runners on second and third following Belt’s go-ahead double, Chisholm fielded a Mauricio Dubon groundball up the middle from the left side of the second-base bag and threw to Aguilar at first. Aguilar bobbled the ball in his glove before catching it bare-handed before Dubon stepped on the bag.

“It’s one of those things where you’re like ‘Not another run,’” Mattingly said. “One [run], you can still look at it like ‘we’ve got a runner on second, nobody out’ so being down one in this extra-inning format is not the worst thing that can happen.”