Final Score: Marlins 9, Phillies 6
A once-promising ballgame took a turn for the worse — and then way worse — on Monday, as the Phillies dropped yet another contest to the Marlins.
The Phillies took and re-took early leads in the second and third innings, but their seemingly never-ending inability to hold the Marlins down reared its ugly head in the middle innings. Zach Eflin departed after six up-and-down frames with the Phillies down two, but he handed it over to the bullpen and things promptly imploded with a disastrous four-run outing by Brandon Kintzler.
The Phillies made some noise with three runs on four hits in the ninth, but the deficit — once as high as seven runs — was ultimately too much to overcome.
It’s the Phillies’ third loss in four games against the Marlins this season as they fell to two games below .500, sliding into fourth place in the division. They are 8-15 on the road this season. It’s the third-worst road winning percentage in baseball. They will need to turn it around fast, as Monday was just the first leg of a nine-game road trip.
Top Plays
- As they’ve done often this season, the Phillies threatened in the first, but Rhys Hoskins grounded into an inning-ending double play with runners on the corners to end the threat.
- Ronald Torreyes just keeps on hitting. The shortstop lined a two-out RBI single in the top of the second to score Brad Miller after a walk and a stolen base. Torreyes is hitting .429 this season and .500 since being activated from the Injured List May 18.
- The Marlins put runners on second and third with no outs in the second following a bloop double by Corey Dickerson, and Sandy León’s sacrifice fly tied it at one. The ball wasn’t terribly deep, but Andrew McCutchen couldn’t get much on his throw, allowing the run to score.
- With some rare help from the defense, Eflin did a nice job preventing further damage in the inning. Jean Segura made a diving play on what would’ve been a Magneuris Sierra RBI knock and Trevor Rogers grounded out, keeping the score at 1-1.
- Hoskins avenged his first-inning double play with a two-out ground rule double to score Segura in the third, putting the Phillies in front. Segura wouldn’t have scored on the play if he hadn’t swiped second earlier in the at bat for the Phillies’ 30th stolen base of the season — second in the National League.
- Jesús Aguilar laced a double to left that McCutchen couldn’t quite reach, tying the ballgame at 2-2 in the third inning.
- Former Phillie Corey Dickerson gave the Marlins a two-run lead in the sixth inning with a two-run triple to right center. It wasn’t a terrible pitch by Eflin, but Dickerson went down and got it, making the Phillies pay for a fielding error by Torreyes earlier in the inning. Eflin struck out León and Sierra to strand Dickerson and keep the deficit at two.
- Brandon Kintzler came on for the bottom of the seventh inning, and his 6.00 ERA entering the night was an indication of how this appearance went. He allowed a single, hit batsman, another single, a 424-foot homer to Adam Duvall and a ground-rule double before being pulled after recording just one out. His ERA is now 8.22, and he has conceded three earned runs in an appearance three separate times this season.
- Now-reliever Chase Anderson allowed back-to-back doubles to Sierra and Garrett Cooper in the eighth to score another run. Cooper would eventually reach third but was thrown out at home on a 1-3-2 double play to end the inning.
- Brad Miller cranked his fifth homer of the season to lead off the ninth, a 406-foot shot to dead center. Miller entered the night hitting .318 with a .966 OPS against lefties, and each of his two hits on the night came off of southpaws.
- McCutchen blooped a double down the right field line to score Torreyes shortly after the shortstop had picked up his second knock of the day.
- Segura chipped in an RBI double of his own, doubling to left and bringing the tying run to the on-deck circle with the score 9-6. It would remain there, however, as Hoskins grounded out to end it.
Shibe Vintage Sports Starting Pitching Performance
Zach Eflin: 6.0 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 SO, 103 pitches
Eflin had one of his weirder outings of the season on Monday. He wasn’t particularly unsharp and he did a solid job limiting the damage early on, but the Marlins got big hits when they needed to, namely the Dickerson triple. Segura made a couple nice diving plays, but overall, the defense didn’t help him out much. His ERA rose slightly to 3.84.
Trevor Rogers: 5.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 SO, 85 pitches
This was Rogers’ second straight start against the Phillies. He allowed one run over 7.2 innings last Wednesday and was less dominant this time around, but he managed to settle in after issuing three walks in the first two innings. Monday was Rogers’ fourth consecutive start with exactly one earned run allowed, lowering his ERA to 1.75 — third in the NL.
Phillies Nuggets Player of the Game: Corey Dickerson
Dickerson’s double set up the tying run in the second, and his sixth-inning triple was the big blow that gave the Marlins a lead they would never relinquish. Duvall’s homer put it out of reach, but the late offensive eruption started with Dickerson.
Ticket IQ Next Game
- Tuesday, May 25 vs. Miami Marlins at 6:40 p.m. ET
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