By JAY COHEN AP Baseball Writer
CHICAGO (AP) — It was one tough afternoon for Jean Segura and company.
Right until the very end.
Segura capped Miami’s five-run ninth inning with a two-run double, and the Marlins beat the Chicago White Sox 5-1 on Saturday.
Miami left 12 runners on base and went 1 for 16 with runners in scoring position. But it turned a late rally into its seventh win in eight games.
“We had guys on base. We just couldn’t get that one big hit,” manager Skip Schumaker said, “and finally broke through in the ninth inning.”
Luis Arraez had two hits for the Marlins (36-29), raising his major league-leading batting average to .402 in 60 games. Sandy Alcantara pitched seven innings of three-hit ball.
“Just go out there inning by inning, trying to attack the most that I can,” said Alcantara, who had a 5.79 ERA over his previous five starts, “and try to not miss my spot too much.”
Arraez helped spark Miami’s rally, following Garrett Cooper’s pinch-hit single with another base hit against Joe Kelly (1-3). A bases-loaded error on shortstop Tim Anderson brought home one run, and Arraez scored on Jesús Sánchez’s walk.
After Yuli Gurriel drove in another run with a fielder’s choice and Joey Wendle struck out, Segura made it 5-1 with a line drive to left against Garrett Crochet.
“Arraez is Arraez, got a hit away and the other guys started battling,” Kelly said. “They weren’t swinging at anything out of the zone. But they put together some really good at-bats.”
Miami improved to 4-25 when trailing after eight innings. It was the team’s 19th comeback win.
“We’ve been doing this all year long,” Segura said. “Come from behind, a lot of ninth-inning rallies for us this year. It just tells you how good of a team we are.”
Steven Okert (3-0) got three outs for the win, working around Elvis Andrus’ leadoff single in the eighth.
Michael Kopech pitched five scoreless innings for Chicago, which dropped to 6-2 in June. Kopech, who hit his first two batters and worked out of trouble for most of the day, has a 1.72 ERA over his last five starts.
“To put it simply, today was more of a grind day,” Kopech said. “It was going out there and gritting my way through it. Didn’t have my best stuff. Struggled a little bit with command.”
The White Sox (29-37) got their only run when Andrew Vaughn drove Alcantara’s first pitch of the fourth into the visitors’ bullpen in right. It was his first homer since May 29 and No. 8 on the year.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Marlins: Cooper was out of the starting lineup after he was hit on his left arm while trying to catch 3B Segura’s errant throw on Andrus’ third-inning single in the series opener. Schumaker said Cooper had an MRI and X-ray that came back negative.
White Sox: Vaughn was shaken up after he was hit by a pitch on his left elbow in the sixth. He was checked on by manager Pedro Grifol and a trainer but remained in the game. … OF Eloy Jiménez (lower left leg) missed his second straight game. He could return to the lineup during the team’s three-game series at the Los Angeles Dodgers.
UP NEXT
Marlins left-hander Braxton Garrett (2-2, 4.47 ERA) and White Sox right-hander Lucas Giolito (5-4, 3.75 ERA) start Sunday in the series finale. Garrett worked five innings of four-run ball in a 9-6 victory over Kansas City on Monday. Giolito tossed six hitless innings in a 3-2 victory at the New York Yankees on Tuesday night.
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Follow Jay Cohen at https://twitter.com/jcohenap
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