Marlins 10, Cubs 3: Five-Run Fifth After PCA's 40th

September 6, 2026 - Miami - Pete Crow-Armstrong led off the fifth and hit it 403 feet to right. The roof was closed. The game was tied 3-3. He had 40 home runs, and for about four minutes loanDepot park belonged to a visiting center fielder.

Then the Miami Marlins scored five in the bottom of the inning and beat the Chicago Cubs 10-3. Javier Sanoja later hit a two-run homer. Heriberto Hernández had already gone deep. Miami avoided a sweep, moved back to .500, and sent Chicago home with a 40-homer night that still lost by seven.

Two early, then Chicago caught up

Joe Mack's groundout scored Jakob Marsee in the second. Otto Lopez singled Hernández home. 2-0, and Tyler Phillips had a lead to work with.

Chicago answered the slow way. Crow-Armstrong's sacrifice fly in the third made it 2-1. Nico Hoerner grounded into a double play in the fourth, Alex Bregman scoring. 2-2. That is a Cubs inning: traffic, one run, no big swing yet.

Hernández supplied the swing. First pitch from Clay Holmes in the fourth, over the wall in left, his 24th. 3-2. Holmes had been the story of Chicago's last week. Sunday he was the pitcher who could not get the fifth inning over.

Crow-Armstrong's 40th tied it. The Associated Press noted he joined Philadelphia's Kyle Schwarber as the only players at that mark this season, and he joined Billy Williams as the only Cubs left-handed hitters to hit 40 or more. Williams hit 42 in 1970. That is real history. It lasted until the next half-inning.

The fifth that ended Holmes

Holmes (6-7) did not record a second out in the fifth. Graham Pauley and Sanoja reached. Kyle Stowers walked. Griffin Conine was hit by a pitch, Pauley scoring, 4-3. Owen Caissie singled two in. Hernández singled another in. Mack singled another in. Five runs. Eight earned for Holmes on the day. Six hits, three walks, 4 1/3 innings, 80 pitches.

That is not a bad pitch. That is a start that got away in one inning after Crow-Armstrong had just given him a clean slate. Colin Rea inherited the rest of the afternoon and gave up Sanoja's two-run shot in the seventh, Lopez scoring ahead of him. 10-3. Sanoja finished 2-for-4 with two runs. Hernandez finished 2-for-4 with a steal and two runs.

Phillips (5-6) lasted five innings, three runs, five hits, three strikeouts. He was not dazzling. He was standing on the mound while Miami scored 10. Cade Gibson, Victor Vodnik, and Jack Ralston finished the last four innings without a run. Chicago's last six outs were quiet.

Ian Happ was a late scratch with left knee discomfort. The Cubs still had Crow-Armstrong, Bregman, Seiya Suzuki, and Hoerner. They scored three times. Two of those runs needed a sacrifice fly and a double-play grounder. The homer was the loud one. The other two were the Cubs manufacturing just enough to stay tied until they weren't.

A 40-homer night that still lost

Crow-Armstrong is the best story in that Chicago lineup, and Sunday did not change that. A 40-homer season for a left-handed Cub is a sentence you do not get to write often. The problem is the rest of the card. Holmes walked the yard. The middle of the order did not cash the early traffic. Chicago is 81-63 and still chasing Milwaukee in the Central. A Sunday loss in Miami after taking the first two does not sink that chase. It does waste a historic swing.

Miami is 72-72. The Marlins inducted Josh Beckett into the club Hall of Fame before the game, a reminder of a different October. Sunday was a September afternoon with the roof closed and a five-run fifth. That is enough. They host the Mets on Monday. Eury Pérez is lined up. Chicago goes to Milwaukee to see the club it is chasing.

I am not dressing this up as a statement win. It is a home club that kept answering until Holmes ran out of outs. Sanoja and Hernández both went deep. Lopez and Marsee each had two hits. Phillips got the win because the fifth inning did the work.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine put Miami at 20 team fantasy points, second on Sunday's board behind only the White Sox. Hernández led the Marlins bats at 10 hitting fantasy points. Sanoja sat at 9. Crow-Armstrong's 40th still scored 7 on the hitting card, which is what a solo shot and a sacrifice fly look like when the rest of the lineup does not follow him. Fantasy points measure the night. Share price is a different number.

The Cubs fly north. The Marlins stay home. PCA has 40. Miami has the W.

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*Sources: ESPN box score; CBS Sports / AP recap; MLB.com schedule; AthX Engine daily fantasy points (September 6, 2026 game date). Information only; not financial advice.*