The Miami Marlins came to Yankee Stadium and lost the first two. They played through a rain delay, gave up a three-run homer in the first inning, fell behind 4-1, watched their emergency starter last exactly one inning, and spent most of Easter Sunday chasing Max Fried.
Then Xavier Edwards stepped in.
The Trinidad-born second baseman drove in three runs — including a two-run single in the eighth that broke the game open — as the Miami Marlins rallied from three runs down to beat the New York Yankees 7-6 on Sunday afternoon, avoiding the sweep and leaving the Bronx with something to build on. Miami improves to 6-3. The Yankees fall to 7-2.
The pipeline delivered when it mattered most. Again.
Miami Marlins outfielders Griffin Conine, left, Owen Caissie, right, and Jakob Marsee, behind, celebrate after a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Sunday, April 5, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
A Day That Started Sideways
Pete Fairbanks wasn’t supposed to be here. The right-hander got an emergency start — the Marlins moving Chris Paddack back so Fairbanks could get home ahead of his wife’s induced labor Monday morning. It was a gesture of humanity in a sport that doesn’t always make room for it.
Oh baby! Marlins’ Pete Fairbanks starts rather than closes so he can get home for child’s birth
Baseball didn’t return the favor. Ben Rice hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the first, his third of the season, to put New York ahead 3-1 before Fairbanks had found his footing. He was out after one inning.
Chris Paddack took over in the third and gave Miami exactly what they needed — 4⅔ innings, one run, four strikeouts — to keep the game within reach. He wasn’t sharp, but he was enough.
Miami Marlins pitcher Pete Fairbanks throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Sunday, April 5, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
The rain delay alone lasted 3 hours and 35 minutes before first pitch. By the time Fairbanks took the mound, it had been nearly six years since his last start — September 21, 2020, with Tampa Bay against the Mets. The Yankees made him pay immediately.
Xavier Edwards Is the Story
The number defines the start. Through nine games, Xavier Edwards is hitting .471.
In the fourth, with Miami trailing 4-1, Edwards lined a double to right off Fried to score Connor Norby and cut the deficit. In the sixth, Otto Lopez walked, stole second, and scored on a José Caballero throwing error that brought the Marlins within one.
Then came the eighth.
Down 4-3, Marsee walked. Lopez walked. Griffin Conine took a pitch off the hip to load the bases. Graham Pauley — pinch-hitting for Norby — lined a two-run double to right off Jake Bird that flipped the score to 5-4. Then Edwards singled to center, scoring two more. It was 7-4.
The game flipped. The series didn’t — but the story did.
Miami Marlins’ Otto Lopez reacts as he scores on a double hit by Graham Pauley during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Sunday, April 5, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
The Ninth Wasn’t Clean
Anthony Bender does not make anything easy. He walked Bellinger, walked Rice, and then Jazz Chisholm Jr. — born in the Bahamas, one of the most electric players in this series — lined a two-run double to right that made it 7-6 and brought the tying run to the plate. Bender intentionally walked Austin Wells to load the bases. J.C. Escarra came up as a pinch hitter.
Strikeout swinging. Ballgame.
Bender made it messy, then made it hold — which, at this point, is its own version of clean.
Miami Marlins pitcher Anthony Bender, right, and catcher Liam Hicks celebrate after a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Sunday, April 5, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
The Series, Closed
Three games. Two cities worth of tension. A rain delay, an emergency start, a four-run eighth that rewrote Easter Sunday in the Bronx.
New York walked 29 times in three games — one shy of the franchise record for a three-game series, set in 1934. The Yankees were 6-for-38 with runners in scoring position across the series. The Marlins’ ABS challenge record: 10-for-11 before losing two in the ninth.
The WBN thread ran through all of it. Edwards — Trinidad — was the best hitter in the series. Hernández — Dominican Republic — opened Game 2 with a triple that set the tone. Sanoja — Venezuela — kept answering late. On the New York side, Chisholm — Bahamas — stole bases and nearly flipped the finale. Caballero — Panama — made the error in the sixth that gave Miami life, then threw out Lopez at the plate on a reviewed call in the same inning.
Baseball without borders, played at Yankee Stadium over three days in early April.
The Marlins didn’t win the series. They showed you who they are. The pipeline is producing. The margin still lives on the mound.
The Miami File — World Baseball Network Coverage
- Alcantara Dominates as Marlins Beat Rockies 2–1 on Opening Day
- Eury Pérez Strikes Out Eight as Marlins Beat Rockies 4–3
- Owen Caissie Walk-Off Homer Completes Marlins Sweep of Rockies
- Miguel Vargas Left Cuba for This — and Owned It in Miami
- Marlins Bounce Back, Beat White Sox 9–2 to Even Series
- Sandy Alcantara Throws a Maddux as Marlins Shut Out White Sox 10–0
- Yankees Beat Marlins 8–2 as Eury Pérez Walks Six in First Road Loss
- Yankees 9, Marlins 7 — Hernández Triples, International Core Delivers, But Bullpen Collapse Costs Miami
Photo: World Baseball Network graphic highlighting Miami’s 7–6 win over the New York Yankees on April 5, 2026. Background photo: Miami Marlins pitcher Anthony Bender, right, and catcher Liam Hicks celebrate after the game at Yankee Stadium in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
