Conine breaks the tie in the 12th
Nobody blinked first. Not until the 12th. Griffin Conine dropped a leadoff single just inside the left-field line off Caleb Thielbar, plating Esteury Ruiz and putting Miami ahead for good in an 8-2 win over the Cubs that stretched three hours and forty extra minutes. The Marlins had lost three straight coming in. They ended that streak in a game that refused to end.
Conine advanced to second on a Graham Pauley bunt. Jakob Marsee drove him home with a line single up the middle. Then Kyle Stowers, who had already gone deep in the sixth, worked a bases-loaded walk off Edward Cabrera that pushed two more runs across and turned a nervy one-run lead into breathing room.
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Cabrera cracks, Junk holds
Miami starter Janson Junk gave the bullpen exactly what it needed: five scoreless innings to open the night. Cabrera wasn’t as lucky. He came on in the 12th and allowed three runs on just two-thirds of an inning, the kind of implosion that turns a taut pitchers’ duel into a laugher on the scoreboard. Josh Ekness picked up the win with a scoreless 11th, striking out two around a walk. Thielbar took the loss.
Chicago starter Shota Imanaga was sharp for five innings himself, conceding only a fourth-inning RBI single from Augustin Ramirez. Pete Crow-Armstrong did what he has done all September, going 2-for-4 with a double and two walks and swiping his 39th base, one shy of the 40-40 club. It wasn’t enough. The Cubs went 1-for-18 with runners in scoring position, the kind of number that buries a team no matter how the box score looks elsewhere.
A wild-card berth waits
Chicago came into Tuesday with a chance to clinch a playoff spot outright. Arizona took care of that first, beating Colorado 7-2 earlier in the evening and keeping the Cubs’ magic number alive rather than settled. At 87-70, the Cubs are still safely inside the field. The Marlins, at 77-80, aren’t chasing anything but pride down the stretch, and Tuesday’s marathon was exactly the kind of game that makes a lost season a little less lost.
Javier Sanoja added a diving stop in the 10th that kept the game level long enough for Conine to have his moment. Small plays, long night, one swing that mattered more than the rest.
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