ATLANTA
Yuli Gurriel swung at the first pitch he saw from Atlanta Braves reliever Jesse Chavez to lead off the ninth inning Tuesday — a middle-in, 91.6 mph sinker. The 38-year-old first baseman hustled out of the box as the line drive headed to the left-field corner at Truist Park. If the ball dropped, extra bases were all but guaranteed as the Miami Marlins tried to muster up one final rally attempt.
The Braves’ Kevin Pillar tracked the ball and attempted to make a running grab, but crashed into the wall, fell to the ground and watched as the ball rolled away. Gurriel continued hustling around the bases until, 16.4 seconds after he made contact, he was back at home plate.
Inside the park home run.
The play temporarily gave the Marlins life, pulling them within three runs to begin a last-ditch comeback effort that ultimately brought the tying run to the plate but ended in a 7-4 loss.
“I went strong with my swing,” Gurriel said. “I have a few at-bats against Chavez and I know he’s always in the zone. I was just ready to take some good hacks. I noticed I was able to get the inside-the-park home run when [Pillar] was on the floor, when he fell in the outfield.”
Marlins manager Skip Schumaker added: “Credit to Yuli. He was hard out of the box. You don’t get [even] a triple unless you’re hard out of the box. That’s the way he’s supposed to play. Exciting moment for him, but just a little to late for the team. We needed more runs in that one.”
But the moment, isolated on its own, has some history to it.
It was the first inside-the-park home run this season and the first ever at Truist Park, which opened in 2017. For the Marlins overall, it was the 21st inside-the-park home run in franchise history. The most recent before this was hit by Jazz Chisholm Jr. on July 10, 2021, in Miami. Ronald Acuna Jr. tore the ACL in his right knee on that play.
For Gurriel specifically, it was the second inside-the-park home run of his MLB career. The other came July 23, 2019, while with the Houston Astros against the Oakland Athletics.
Through Tuesday, Gurriel is hitting .293 with a .804 on-base-plus-slugging mark, two home runs (including the inside-the-parker), one double, four RBI and four runs scored over 44 plate appearances this season. He has at least one hit in eight of his 10 starts and nine of 12 games played overall.
“He works,” Schumaker said of Gurriel earlier this season. “He’s preparing like he’s going to start every day so that when he gets that opportunity, he’s ready. His timing is there. He’s doing all he can to make sure he’s hitting off the machine. ... We feel good about when he’s in the lineup because he’s a professional hitter.”
The effort Gurriel showed is also what Schumaker wants to see from his club overall. Miami entered the ninth inning trailing the Braves by four. After Gurriel hit his inside-the-park home run, both Jesus Sanchez and Jazz Chisholm hit singles to put runners on first and second and bring the tying run to the plate with two outs. Jorge Soler struck out swinging to end the game.
One inning earlier, Bryan De La Cruz worked a 10-pitch at-bat before hitting an RBI single and Avisail Garcia followed with an RBI single of his own to cut Miami’s deficit to 5-3 before Atlanta rebuilt its lead with a pair of home runs against Tanner Scott.
“It looks like a team that’s not giving up,” Gurriel said. “That’s what I like to see. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get that many runs at the beginning of the game.”
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