Diaz and Cooper homer but Marlins bashed by Mike Moustakas

Mike Moustakas celebrated his 31st birthday by hitting two home runs, including a tiebreaking, two-run shot in the ninth inning to lead the Milwaukee Brewers over the Miami Marlins 7-5 Wednesday night.

“Obviously two homers is pretty cool no matter what day it is but on your birthday it’s pretty special,” Moustakas said. “But even more so is the win, especially with Yeli going down. Everyone has to step up even more.”

In his first full season with the Brewers, Moustakas has more than 30 home runs for the second time in his career. His career high is 38, achieved in 2017 with the Kansas City Royals.

“He’s having a big year,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said of Moustakas. “He hurt us in Milwaukee a little bit. I think we left a changeup up the first time. I’m not sure if [Jose Urena] was trying to go in. He’s a pretty good fastball hitter.”

Diaz and Cooper, just as Moustakas

For the Marlins, the loss spoiled a night in which progress was made with some of their young players. Isan Diaz and Garrett Cooper hit back-to-back home runs in the fifth inning to tie the game 5-5. Diaz is hitting .162 since being called up on Aug. 5, but has hit 26 home runs with a .305 batting average and .973 OPS in Triple-A New Orleans. Of his 19 hits in the big leagues, three of them are doubles and three are home runs.

“I think that’s what happens when you stick to your plan and put a good swing on the ball,” Diaz said. “I was very fortunate with that, brought some momentum to our side. We tried to keep it rolling, but we fell a little short tonight.”

Cooper now has 15 home runs and 50 RBI and is slashing .282/.346/.449 in his first full season in the big leagues. He batted .306 before the All-Star Game but .258 afterwards. His home runs have been the same between the two halves.

“I think the second half has been more of a learning curve for me, trying to drive the ball a little bit more,” Cooper said. “I think my hard-hit percentage is way up this half. You teeter on trying to get your hits, and you teeter on trying to drive the ball.”

The Marlins now have 127 home runs on the season, which is the fewest in MLB. Miami has 66 homers at Marlins Park, which is 27th in the league at home, and as spacious as the fairly new ballpark is, visiting teams don’t seem to have any difficulty hitting bombs there. It’s nights like this that make it seem like these youngsters are close to turning the corner.