Joe Mack's Double, Coby Mayo's Error Rescue Marlins From Four-Game Slide

The Marlins ended a season-high-tying four-game losing streak Thursday night at loanDepot park, beating the Orioles 4-3 on a walk-off error in the ninth. With two outs and the game tied, top catching prospect Joe Mack (MLB's No. 52 overall prospect) laced a double, then scored when Javier Sanoja's chopper bounced off Orioles third baseman Coby Mayo's glove and sailed wide of first base. Chaos baseball, yes — but Miami will take it.

The win didn't come purely on dumb luck. Liam Hicks gave the Marlins their first lead of the series with a two-run blast to right in the first inning — his ninth homer of the year — off a hanging slider from Orioles lefty Cade Povich. The notable wrinkle: it was the first home run of Hicks' career against a left-handed pitcher, suggesting his platoon limitations may be eroding. Connor Norby added an RBI single in the third against his former club, and Max Meyer turned in five serviceable innings, allowing two runs before the Miami bullpen locked it down through the sixth and seventh.

The eighth inning nearly unraveled everything. Manager Clayton McCullough bypassed his proven late-inning options — Calvin Faucher, Anthony Bender, Tyler Phillips — and handed the ball to prospect Josh Ekness against the top of Baltimore's lineup. Ekness walked Taylor Ward, surrendered a single to Dylan Beavers, and then gave up a broken-bat RBI single to Pete Alonso that tied the game at three. Ekness wriggled out with a double play and a flyout, but the decision will draw scrutiny in a Miami bullpen that already operates on thin margins.

The number that matters most for prop bettors is Hicks' RBI total: 34, which leads all of Major League Baseball through this point of the season. That's not a fluke line — it's a function of where he hits in Miami's order and the fact that the Marlins, despite their record, are generating traffic on the bases. His RBI prop lines have been slow to adjust at most books, often sitting at 1.5 for a player averaging well over one per game. The left-on-left home run also opens the door on his total bases number against southpaws, a split books still discount. Watch for Hicks listed at 1.5 total bases against lefties — that's a number worth attacking.

For team-total purposes, Miami's bullpen volatility cuts both ways. McCullough's willingness to deploy inexperienced arms in high-leverage spots keeps Marlins games in play late, which historically inflates scoring variance. Baltimore, meanwhile, is a lineup capable of getting into a bullpen and doing damage; Alonso's arrival in the middle of the order adds another credible run-producer. Orioles-Marlins series totals have been set conservatively all week — if Miami's rotation keeps performing like Meyer did Thursday, look for first-five-innings unders to stay viable while the full-game total remains a coin flip.