Marlins lose to D-backs on walk-off homer in ninth

PHOENIX -- Baseball's fickle nature reared its ugly head against the Marlins on Tuesday.

A day after Miami totaled only three hits but still came out on top thanks to a pair of homers, including a game-winning long ball in the ninth, the club was on the opposite side of an eerily similar game on Tuesday.

Nathan Eovaldi mostly dominated the D-backs' lineup in his season debut, but he allowed a game-tying home run in the fourth that spoiled his stellar night and set the stage for a Paul Goldschmidt walk-off blast in the bottom of the ninth off Chad Qualls, as the Marlins fell, 3-2, at Chase Field.

"It's a tough loss," Marlins manager Mike Redmond said. "All you can do is just tip your cap."

Adding to the peculiar near-mirror outcomes on Monday and Tuesday were the pitchers who allowed the two game-winning homers. After former Marlins closer Heath Bell served up the big hit in the ninth on Monday to Giancarlo Stanton, former D-backs closer Qualls did the same Tuesday to Goldschmidt.

Qualls threw a sinker over the heart of the plate and Goldschmidt crushed it off the center-field wall above the yellow line for his 17th homer of the year.

"We just made a mistake there, that pitch was middle-in, I think," Redmond said. "I know [Qualls] wasn't trying to go there, but that's where it ended up."

Said Goldschmidt: "I was able to hit it hard and lucky enough to get some backspin and get it out of here. I had a good feeling. If not [a home run], it wasn't going to be a triple, [because] I wasn't running that hard, so I'm glad it got out of here."

Miami outhit Arizona, 8-5, but went 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position. The Marlins put two on with nobody out in the second inning and came up empty, and then in the seventh, Adeiny Hechavarria made the first out at third trying to stretch a double into a triple.

"A little too aggressive for the situation, but we also had first and second, nobody out early and had a strikeout. You have to try to put the ball in play," Redmond said. "We very easily could've won that game."

Both Marlins runs came in the fourth off D-backs starter Randall Delgado, as they scored on back-to-back two-out RBI hits from Derek Dietrich (a triple) and Hechavarria (single). Juan Pierre also had one of Miami's hits to extend his hitting streak to 14 games.

Making his season debut in the building where he made his first Major League start (with the Dodgers), Eovaldi allowed only three hits in six innings. But like D-backs lefty Patrick Corbin did on Monday with Stanton, Eovaldi made one costly mistake, and Arizona made him pay.

Cruising through his first 3 2/3 innings, Eovaldi issued a two-out walk to Miguel Montero in the fourth, then threw a 3-1 fastball down the middle to Prado, who deposited the offering into the left-field bleachers.

"My timing was just a little off in getting to the plate and I fell behind," Eovaldi said. "I left a pitch middle-in and he hammered it."

Still, the Marlins came away pleased with Eovaldi, who missed the first 2 1/2 months of the season with a shoulder injury. The 23-year-old's fastball topped out at 99 mph a few times, while his 12-to-6 curveball induced several swings and misses.

"His velocity was impressive," Redmond said. "He did a nice job. He only made one mistake, other than that, he was really good."

As for Eovaldi feeling any lingering effects from his injury, the right-hander said he came out of his 84-pitch effort feeling OK.

"My shoulder feels fine," he said. "It felt good getting back on the mound, fastball felt good and for the most part my breaking ball did, too."