KANSAS CITY – Griffin Conine doesn’t need to go far to hear firsthand what the postseason chase feels like.
His father Jeff, known as “Mr. Marlin,” was part of both the 1997 and 2003 World Series-winning Marlins. The latter ballclub rode a hot September into the postseason and never looked back. Griffin hopes the 2026 Marlins can do the same.
Conine made two stellar catches late, Heriberto Hernández knocked a pair of RBI doubles and three Marlins went deep in a 9-6 comeback win over the Royals on Wednesday night at Kauffman Stadium.
With the victory, Miami (71-69) moved within 2 1/2 games of Arizona (74-67) for the third and final National League Wild Card spot with 22 games remaining and ace Sandy Alcantara starting Thursday’s series finale.
“Any team could get hot at the right time,” Griffin recalled his dad saying. “I think we've shown we're very hot and cold [in] stretches, right? It's going to come down to getting hot this last month. That's what's going to do it. We're off to a good start in September, and I think we're right where we need to be.”
Trailing 6-4 in the sixth, the Marlins scored three runs against the Royals’ bullpen to take a 7-6 lead.
Javier Sanoja singled and Jakob Marsee walked before the left-handed-hitting Conine produced a pinch-hit RBI single against righty Jose Cuas. With runners on the corners, Jared Serna sent a sinking liner to the right-center gap. Though Kyle Isbel robbed Serna of his first career hit, the game-tying sacrifice fly counted as his first RBI.
Following a two-out passed ball by Royals catcher Carter Jensen that put Conine in scoring position, Hernández collected his second RBI double in as many at-bats to give Miami a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
“We were all hitting the ball well,” Hernández said via interpreter Luis Dorante. “It was just a matter of time the balls were going to land. We know the importance of these games. It was an important game. So we were just looking, and we knew we were going to find a moment to score runs.”
The time then came for Conine’s defensive heroics in front of his father at the site of Jeff’s Major League debut on Sept. 16, 1990. Conine thwarted Royals rallies in consecutive innings to help five Marlins relievers combine for 4 1/3 hitless frames.
With runners on the corners in the sixth, Conine made a diving catch on Vinnie Pasquantino’s sinking liner to end the inning. In the seventh, Conine leapt at the wall in right-center to snag Michael Massey’s fly ball with a runner at first and no outs.
“Obviously I've split time with first base and [designated hitter], and I think those are far and away the two best plays I made all year, and they happened in back-to-back innings,” Conine said. “It hasn't been my best year defensively, and I think I'm better than what I've shown out there. But also, you're going to have opportunities to make plays and show it. And I think for whatever reason, I feel like I haven't had a lot of opportunities to do that. So those ones are big for me tonight, for sure.”
Sanoja and Marsee hit back-to-back home runs with two outs in the ninth to add insurance. Miami improved to 30-8 when clubbing two or more long balls this season.
The offensive output helped bail out right-hander Eury Pérez, who allowed a season-high six runs, including a career-high-tying three homers, across 4 2/3 innings. Although Pérez entered with the Majors’ second-lowest average against (.175) since June 24, he gave up five runs on five hits in a 34-pitch first inning.
It marked the second straight start that Pérez allowed five runs in a frame, doing so in his third and final inning on Friday in Washington to open the trip. Prior to these last two times on the mound, in which he surrendered 11 runs over 7 2/3 frames, Pérez had a 1.67 ERA over his past 13 starts.
“This was like a boxing match,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “We drew some blood early, but it was kind of just hanging there and trying to win round by round. What we were able to do collectively offensively and just kind of keep going, putting pressure on them, and getting some big hits with people on, it was a really good night for our offense.”