MIAMI — As far as starts go, the Marlins got off to a pretty good one Thursday night in their bid to salvage a game from the Cincinnati Reds. Juan Pierre hit a rare leadoff homer. Jose Fernandez was efficient.

The finish was predictable.

After the Marlins tied it in the bottom of the ninth, the Reds came back for three runs off Steve Cishek in his second inning of work for a 5-3 win. The season series between the two teams ended with the Reds winning six of seven.

Both starters pitched well enough for the win. Coral Springs High School and Broward College product Matt Latos was two outs from tossing a complete game. The Marlins' fourth and final hit off him was an Adeiny Hechavarria one-out triple in the ninth.

The Reds summoned closer Aroldis Chapman, who struck out pinch-hitter Placido Polanco before watching Marcell Ozuna rip his 2-0, 98-mph fastball into the left-center-field gap for a game-tying, RBI triple.

The blown save for Chapman, who got the game to extras with a strikeout of pinch-hitter Justin Ruggiano on a 102-mph heater, was his first in nine chances.

Fernandez needed just 27 pitches to get through the first three scoreless innings on his way to a career-high 99 pitches over seven. The Reds made it a 1-1 game during a 23-pitch Fernandez fourth, when he gave up a double to Joey Votto and RBI single to Jay Bruce on a two-out, full-count, 96-mph fastball.

Only three of the first 20 batters Fernandez faced did not see a first-pitch strike. Bruce, in the fourth, was one of them. He also was the lone Reds' hitter of the 29 Fernandez faced that got ahead 2-0.

The only other blemish for Fernandez was a two-out, first-pitch fastball to Brandon Phillips in the sixth. Phillips over the course of three at-bats off Fernandez saw seven pitches, only two of which were fastballs. The second came in at 95 and landed over the left-field wall in the Clevelander.

Two of the four homers Fernandez has served up over his first 44 big league innings have come on the first pitch.

Latos was equally stout. The lone run he allowed before the ninth was a Juan Pierre leadoff home run on the fourth pitch.

Pierre had not homered since last June 23, when as a member of the Phillies he deposited a James Shields pitch over the wall. His fourth career leadoff homer (first since Aug. 28, 2006) was the 18th of Pierre's career and seventh as a Marlin. He has never hit more than three in a season.

Pierre has now hit safely in seven of his last eight games started at a .313 clip (10 for 32).