Fireworks at the finish: Jumbo Shrimp rally downs Gwinnett in 2024 Opening Day baseball

It started with Jaguars and ended with fireworks, and on a new season's beginning, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp saved the best for last.

Batting from the tail end of the order, No. 9 hitter Marty Costes came through with the go-ahead RBI to mark his Jumbo Shrimp debut with a 5-4 win over the Gwinnett Stripers in Friday night's Opening Day at 121 Financial Ballpark.

Left fielder Jonathan Davis preserved the victory on the game's last at-bat by chasing down David Fletcher's ninth-inning fly at full speed and absorbing a crash into the wall for the game-clinching catch before a sold-out crowd of 8,786 to open the Triple-A baseball season.

Costes, a 28-year-old from Baltimore acquired from the Astros' organization in the Rule 5 Draft, whacked a two-out single in the bottom of the eighth off Tommy Doyle (0-1) to plate Griffin Conine in a gritty come-from-behind win.

For more than an hour, a first-pitch cameo appearance from former Jaguars stars Josh Scobee and Tony Boselli looked like it might be the night's biggest highlight for Jumbo Shrimp fans. But the bats woke up, and while more than 140 games remain for the Miami Marlins' affiliates, the Jumbo Shrimp are 1-0. For a club that ended 2023 on the wrong side of .500, that's always a good start.

A few of the Opening Day takeaways:

NEW FACES COME THROUGH

Costes, who went 2 for 4 from the bottom of the order, was just one of the success stories on a lineup that's almost brand new.

Only four of the starters in the Jumbo Shrimp's Opening Day lineup — first baseman Troy Johnston, center fielder Dane Myers, right fielder Griffin Conine and shortstop Jacob Amaya, ranked by MLB.com as the No. 9 prospect in the Marlins' organization — played a game for the team last year.

Third baseman Tristan Gray picked up a pair of hits, Davis drew two walks from the leadoff spot and Opening Day starter Darren McCaughan worked to find a rhythm after a rocky start.

Greeted by a double off the center field wall by J.P. Martinez on his first pitch, and later rocked by home runs off the bats of Martinez and Luke Williams, McCaughan settled down to last six innings with six hits and three runs in his first Jumbo Shrimp game since his offseason acquisition from the Mariners' system.

WATCHING THE WALL

How much will Jacksonville's reshaped right field wall come into play in 2024? It's already cost Jacksonville one likely home run.

The modified wall, while still measuring 317 feet down the line as in the past, stands several feet taller and follows a different contour compared to the fence as it stood before the start of a $31.8 million ballpark renovation project.

Gwinnett leadoff man Martinez, who reached base four times, became the first player to clear the new right field barrier with a third-inning drive that gave the Stripers a 2-0 lead.

The Jumbo Shrimp saw the opposite side in the eighth. Conine belted a liner to right, but it clanked off the upper portion of the wall — the new portion installed during the renovations — and landed as a double instead of a home run.

JUMBO SHRIMP RESOURCEFUL IN RALLY

The Jumbo Shrimp didn't open their season like a team headed for victory. But their resilience stands out as a good early sign for manager Daren Brown.

Gwinnett starter Darius Vines held Jumbo Shrimp bats in check for 3 1/3 innings until a breakthrough in the fourth: Gray beat out a grounder to short, and after a walk to Will Banfield, Jacksonville scored three quick runs on a Conine double, an Amaya single and a Jose Devers sacrifice fly.

After an Amaya fielding error allowed Gwinnett to regain a 4-3 lead in the top of the seventh, Jacksonville responded in the bottom of the frame when Doyle bizarrely stumbled on the mound during his delivery for a balk that scored Costes from third.

That set the stage for one key piece of the Jumbo Shrimp puzzle that hasn't changed from 2023: Anthony Maldonado (1-0) returned to the closer role for two innings of hitless relief to neutralize the Stripers.

Maldonado yielded a leadoff walk in the ninth, but forced two soft fly outs before Fletcher's drive to the corner that ended in the glove of left fielder Davis. Ranked as a top-20 prospect for the Marlins, Maldonado's slider-heavy repertoire has resulted in sub-2.00 ERAs in both 2022 and 2023 at Triple-A, and he could be looking at a major league call before long if he continues that form for the Jumbo Shrimp.

The Jumbo Shrimp wrap up the opening three-game series at 3:05 p.m. Sunday with an Easter egg hunt, then hit the road beginning Tuesday for six games at the Durham Bulls.

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This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp Opening Day 2024 vs. Gwinnett Stripers