Both offenses stayed dormant for seven full innings before the game flipped. Miami is off a stretch that included an 8-run outburst against Pittsburgh sandwiched around a 1-13 blowout loss, and the version that showed up in Cincinnati looked like the good one — patient, opportunistic, and unwilling to let a scoreless game stay that way.
The Marlins finally broke through with 2 runs in the 8th, and Cincinnati answered with 1 of its own to make it a game. That's as close as it got. Miami piled on 5 more in the 9th while the Reds' defense fell apart behind them — 3 errors on the day turned a winnable, low-scoring affair into a laugher, and by the time the dust settled it was 7-1.
The finale capped a series Miami controlled, taking 2 of the first 3 from Cincinnati after dropping the opener 1-0. The Reds, meanwhile, close the book on this set having lost 2 straight and now show 2-3 over their last 5 — a step back after taking 2 of 3 from the White Sox the week before.
For Miami, it's a series win to build on with Pérez fronting a rotation that's short on bodies but not on stuff. For Cincinnati, it's another reminder that the margin for error is thin when the bullpen and defense both have bad innings on the same afternoon — a formula that's bitten them more than once this month.