Christian Yelich homers, J.T. Realmuto singles in 8th as Marlins edge Phillies
The desperate Marlins need sweeps.
Instead, they avoided one Sunday with a 5-4 win over the Phillies. Christian Yelich lined a game-tying, two-run homer in the eighth before J.T. Realmuto drove in the go-ahead run with a single.
The Marlins needed some help from the Phillies to pull out the win.
After Yelich’s homer, a dropped infield pop by Phillies second baseman Cesar Hernandez set up the go-ahead run. But beggars can’t be choosers, and the Marlins are at a point where they’ll take wins any way they can get them.
Until the eighth, it looked like it would go down as another defeat stemming from another poor outing from starter Andrew Cashner.
The Cashner trade designed to propel the Marlins into the postseason has not gone according to plan. Cashner has given them no lift, and the Marlins are on a straight trajectory to an October of golf and quail hunting.
For the 13th straight year.
Cashner’s outing ended after four ineffective innings.
Cashner labored through a 38-pitch first inning in which the Phillies scored twice, coughed up a solo homer in the third to Odubel Herrera, and came out for a pinch-hitter in the Marlins’ fifth.
The lineup was not quick to his rescue.
The Marlins, who were blanked Saturday, were held scoreless for four innings by Phillies starter Alec Asher before producing a pair of runs on back-to-back RBI singles by Dee Gordon and Derek Dietrich.
But the Marlins, who had scored five runs in the series to that point, finally showed some life in the eighth.
Dietrich drew a leadoff walk before Yelich hammered his 19th home run to tie it. After Hernandez and first baseman Tommy Joseph muffed Marcell Ozona’s routine pop for a two-base error, Realmuto sent a grounder down the line that was backhanded by Maikel Franco.
But Franco’s throw pulled Joseph off the bag, and the go-ahead run crossed, as a result.
This story was originally published September 18, 2016 at 6:05 PM with the headline "Christian Yelich homers, J.T. Realmuto singles in 8th as Marlins edge Phillies."