Marlins walked off for second time against Phillies to drop middle series of road trip

The Miami Marlins were one pitch away from taking the series against the Philadelphia Phillies, one well-located pitch from leaving Citizens Bank Park and heading to New York on a high.

But the one pitch didn’t come.

Tanner Scott, who has established himself as the team’s closer over the month of June, left a slider over the heart of the plate on a 2-2 count. Garrett Stubbs got all of it for a walk-off home run as the Phillies beat the Marlins 3-1 on Wednesday to take the series.

“It all has to do with location,” Scott said. “I mean, I threw it right down the middle. Can’t do that.”

Philadelphia (32-31) also opened the series with a 3-2 walk-off victory on Monday on a night Sandy Alcantara threw 7 2/3 strong innings. Miami (28-33) won the middle game of the set 11-9 on Tuesday.

Six of Miami’s 33 losses have been walk-off defeats.

“Had enough of those for the year already,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said.

Miami is now 3-3 through two series of this three-city, 10-game road trip. The Marlins took two of three against the Houston Astros to begin the trip. After an off day on Thursday, they will play four games against the NL-leading New York Mets at Citi Field beginning Friday.

Going .500 against the AL-West leading Astros and a Phillies team that had won nine of 10 games entering the series with Miami is respectable.

But it left something to be desired considering how the two losses unfolded in Philadelphia — two walk-off defeats — and considering the Marlins’ understanding of the need to get wins this road trip if they want to make a move in the standings.

“We’ve been playing really good baseball,” shortstop Miguel Rojas said, “but at the end of the day, you want to get results.”

They were in position to get the results on Wednesday.

Left-handed pitcher Daniel Castano threw 6 2/3 scoreless innings in a spot start Wednesday. He struck out out three while allowing five hits and two walks on 105 pitches. The total innings and total pitches are both single-game career-highs.

The Phillies went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position against Castano, including three consecutive outs in the sixth after Rhys Hoskins led off the inning with a triple.

He left the mound with two runners on base and two outs in the seventh. Right-handed reliever Tommy Nance struck out Kyle Schwarber, landing a full-count curveball that just nicked the top of the strike zone to strand the two inherited runners.

“I felt confident hitter-to-hitter,” Castano said. “Not trying to make the moment too big.”

His performance coupled with the Marlin’s current roster situation likely sets him up to stay in the rotation for the immediate future.

The Marlins on Wednesday placed Edward Cabrera on the 15-day injured list with right elbow tendinitis. Mattingly described the move as the organization being “overly cautious.”

With Cabrera sidelined, the Marlins’ rotation currently consists of Sandy Alcantara, Pablo Lopez (who was scratched from Wednesday’s start while dealing with a right wrist injury but will likely pitch one of the Mets games), Trevor Rogers, Braxton Garrett and Castano.

Beyond them, Miami only has one healthy starting pitcher on the 40-man roster: Elieser Hernandez.

Rojas gave the Marlins a 1-0 lead when he lifted a low Kyle Gibson changeup a projected 346 feet to left field for a solo home run to lead off the fifth inning. With a 92.5 mph exit velocity, it was the softest hit home run by a Marlins player since Statcast began tracking data in 2015.

One play before that, though, Rojas made a leaping grab on a throw from Nick Fortes before tagging out Alec Bohm on a stolen base attempt to complete an inning-ending double play in the bottom of the fourth.

That one run almost was enough for the Marlins to clinch the series-deciding game.

Anthony Bass pitched a scoreless eighth, working around a leadoff single with a Bryce Harper to pop out, a Matt Vierling (pinch-running for Hoskins) caught stealing on a great tag from Jazz Chisholm Jr. and a Nick Castellanos flyout to the warning track in left field.

In the ninth, Scott struck out Didi Gregorious before allowing consecutive baserunners on an Alec Bohm single and J.T. Realmuto walk. Scott struck out Yairo Munoz for the second out and got Stubbs to a 2-2 count before giving up the game-winning home run.

“Obviously frustrating when you give up homers to lose games,” Mattingly said. “Your guys go all day long, but you can look at the game in a lot of different ways. We scored one run. We’ve got to be able to muster more than that, but you’re still in the game when we got to that point. We got a chance to win it with one more strike. We just weren’t able to close it out.”

Jordan McPherson

Miami Herald

305-376-2129

Jordan McPherson covers the Miami Hurricanes and Florida Panthers for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and covered the Gators athletic program for five years before joining the Herald staff in December 2017.