In fact, Miami entered Saturday tied with Boston for the third-fewest homers in the Majors (29). Through the season’s first 39 games, the club had not gone deep more than twice in a game.
That changed in the Marlins’ 8-7 victory over the Nationals on Saturday at loanDepot park, where Kyle Stowers, Xavier Edwards and Jakob Marsee each went deep.
“We might not have four or five guys that go 20-plus [home runs], but we have some guys that can run some totals up there, and then have a group kind of spread out where we do have a number of guys that get double digits,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “Slug is a really nice way to come back in games. … You score quickly when the ball leaves the ballpark. It's not like selling out for homers, but in order to impact the ball, you need to have a good approach and you need to get some aggressive swings off."
Here’s a deeper dive into how impactful each home run was:
Slumping Marsee comes up big
Marsee, whose average (.175) was the fourth-lowest among qualifying Major Leaguers, moved down in the lineup earlier in the homestand after serving as the club’s primary leadoff batter.
With the game tied, 4-4, in the eighth, Stowers led off the inning with a single for his second three-hit performance of the season. Connor Norby followed with a walk before both runners advanced a base on a wild pitch.
With the infield drawn in, Marsee pulled back on two bunt attempts when lefty reliever Mitchell Parker threw consecutive balls to start the at-bat. After whiffing on a slider, Marsee didn’t miss the next offering, lining it over the right-field wall for a go-ahead three-run homer -- just his second home run of the season.
After a promising 55-game stint last year to open his big league career, Marsee and the Marlins expected more out of him in 2026. Despite the tough times, he continued to receive votes of confidence from McCullough and the front office. Marsee also credited his faith and teammates like Stowers, whose locker is next to his in the clubhouse.
“Obviously [it’s] been a long year so far, and [it] just felt good to get that [homer] and at the same time be able to put the team ahead and help win this game,” Marsee said. “It's been a long year, and just, at times felt like I haven't been much of a help. So definitely felt like a sigh of relief, a little bit.”
All-Star Stowers trying to find swing
Stowers got Miami’s rally started in the fourth by cutting a 4-0 deficit in half with his first homer of the season. Stowers, who didn’t make his 2026 debut until April 19 due to a right hamstring strain, pulled righty Zack Littell’s 83.6 mph splitter for a two-run shot.
Stowers entered Saturday with just three extra-base hits and one RBI through his first 17 games. He nearly doubled that extra-base total, not just with the home run but with a double in the first inning, too. This time a year ago, Stowers was already putting together his case as a first-time All-Star.
Without a normal Spring Training workload due to the injury, Stowers has seemingly been behind the eight ball from the get-go.
“I think it's a factor,” Stowers said. “I think it is what it is. It's part of it, but going into Major League competition is always very challenging. And so you throw on top of it maybe less at-bats and less of a buildup, I think it definitely made it a little bit more of a challenge. But at the same time, it kind of forces you to start to problem-solve sooner.”
Back-to-back for X
Rather than letting his first at-bat -- a called strikeout on a pitch clock violation because he asked for time twice -- affect him, Edwards maintained his unexpected power stroke.
Edwards knotted the game, 4-4, in the seventh with a two-out solo homer. The switch-hitting Edwards, who had never gone deep as a righty in his Major League career until Friday night, produced an encore by crushing Parker’s slider over the left-center wall a Statcast-projected 422 feet -- the longest home run of his career.
With the long ball, Edwards set a single-season career high for homers (four) just 40 games into the season.
“I talked to the hitting guys, and we kind of came up with treating both sides as two different hitters, so that's what I'm trying to do,” Edwards said. “I try to kind of hover, I guess. [I] got rid of my toe tap on the right-hand side, and kind of freed me up a little bit. My body moves different on the right-hand side, so just try to treat it like that, and that's what we got.”