Marlins 12, Angels 3: Griffin Conine Homers Twice in a Six-Run Fifth

August 9, 2026 - Miami - Sandy Alcantara shut the Angels out here on Saturday. Sunday, Miami's lineup decided pitching wasn't the only way to sweep a series.

Griffin Conine homered twice, and the Miami Marlins blew the game open with a six-run fifth inning on the way to a 12-3 win over the Los Angeles Angels.

Fast start, then the fifth inning happens

Miami didn't need long to get going. A three-run first, aided by an Angels defense that couldn't find its footing early, put the Marlins up before Los Angeles starter G. Rodriguez had settled into his outing. Jose Siri answered with a solo homer in the second to get the Angels within a run at 3-1, and for two innings it looked like a game that might stay competitive.

Then the fifth arrived. Conine's two-run homer to right-center started the damage, and a two-run single a few batters later kept the line moving. By the time the inning ended, Miami had scored six runs and turned a manageable deficit into a laugher. Rodriguez's final line, four earned runs on four hits with four walks in four innings, ended his day well before the carnage was finished.

Conine wasn't done. He added a solo shot in the eighth, his second homer of the night and the exclamation point on a career day.

A bullpen game that solved itself early

Miami starter Ryan Gusto worked four solid innings before handing off to a bullpen that needed only a handful of outs to finish what the offense had already decided. Los Angeles got a ninth-inning run to make the final score look slightly less brutal, but nothing about the closing innings suggested a team with a path back into this one.

Two nights, two different formulas, same result for the Angels: overmatched by pitching on Saturday, buried by an offense that wouldn't stop scoring on Sunday.

What consecutive routs say about Miami's ceiling

A team that can win 7-0 on a shutout and 12-3 on a six-run inning the very next day is showing you two different ways to beat a division rival, and neither one depended on the other. Alcantara's Saturday gem was about as complete a pitching performance as this season will produce. Sunday was about a lineup finally clicking together at the same time, with Conine's two homers as the headline and enough secondary contact around him to make the final score lopsided rather than merely comfortable.

AthX Engine angle

Miami finished tied with the Mets atop the team board with 24 AthX Engine team fantasy points. Conine led every Marlins hitter with 12 fantasy points, his two-homer night the best individual offensive performance in the win.

Track Conine and the Marlins board on the marketplace. AthX Engine scores what happened on the field; share price is a separate market number. Information only, not financial advice.

*Sources: MLB.com gameday final, ESPN recap, AthX Engine daily scoring for August 9, 2026. Information only; not financial advice.*