Behind Edward Cabrera, Miami Marlins salvage finale against Phillies to avoid sweep

To paraphrase The Most Interesting Man in the World from the old Dos Equis beer commercials: The Miami Marlins rarely win baseball games this season, but when they do, they’re probably playing a series finale.

That was the case again on Thursday, when the Marlins beat the Philadelphia Phillies 3-0 at Citizens Bank Park to avoid a three-game sweep. Miami lost the first two games of the series 4-1 on Tuesday and 4-3 on Wednesday.

The Marlins (50-61) are now 18-18 this season in series finales. This includes wins in four of their past five series finales — the only wins they have in their past 13 games (July 28 at the Cincinnati Reds, Aug. 3 at home against the Reds, Sunday at the Chicago Cubs and Thursday against the Phillies).

On Thursday, Edward Cabrera led the way with 5 2/3 shutout innings before the group of Steven Okert, Dylan Floro and Tanner Scott tossed the final 3 1/3 innings.

Scott recorded his 16th save of the season after throwing the final 1 1/3 innings although it was a wild adventure to those four outs.

He entered the game with two on and two outs in the eighth inning and struck out J.T. Realmuto on five pitches to strand those two runners.

But in the ninth, the Phillies (62-49) loaded the bases with no outs on a Nick Castellanos full-count single, Bryson Stott single against the shift after a six-pitch at-bat and Jean segura full-count walk. After a mound meeting from pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr., Scott struck out pinch-hitter Edmundo Sosa and left fielder Matt Vierling before getting center fielder Brandon Marsh to ground out to strand the runners and complete the shutout.

“Bases loaded and no outs in the ninth with a lead is now what you want,” Scott said. “I definitely don’t want to see that again, but Mel came out there and told me to take a deep breath and said ‘Hey, this is you. You got this.’ I just went into full attack mode and got out of it.”

It backed up Cabrera’s latest strong outing in his return to the active roster.

In two starts since returning from a two-and-a-half-month long injured list stint, Cabrera has thrown 10 2/3 shutout innings with 14 strikeouts while giving up just three hits and walking five.

He worked around a pair of baserunners each of the first two innings and a high pitch count (43 pitches after two innings) before settling in for the rest of his start Thursday. He threw 91 total pitches.

“It was just attacking the zone,” Cabrera said. “That’s what I did. That was my mentality through the whole game. Just go as far as I can and deep into the game.”

Miami opened scoring in the second inning when Joey Wendle’s two-out single scored Lewin Diaz, who had reached on a fielding error and moved to third on a Luke Williams popup single that fell on the infield when Phillies second baseman Jean Segura lost track of the ball in the air.

The Marlins used another two-out rally in the sixth to extend their lead over the Phillies. Nick Fortes and Charles Leblanc hit back-to-back singles to put runners on the corners for Diaz. Leblanc then stole second base. Fortes scored and Leblanc moved to third on a wild pitch before Diaz drove in Leblanc with a double to right-center field to give the pitching staff a pair of insurance runs.

“It’s just a matter of us getting the big hit when we need it,” Fortes said. “That’s just what we’re lacking right now. Pitching is always going to keep us in it. It’s just a matter of the guys rallying some hits together and putting together some good innings like we did today.”

Cooper update

Jesus Aguilar pinch-hit for Garrett Cooper in the eighth inning on Thursday. Marlins manager Don Mattingly said Cooper’s calf tightened up on him during his run to first base trying to beat out a ground ball in the sixth inning.

“Precautionary I would say,” Mattingly said, “but we’ll see where it goes.”

Up next

The Marlins begin a seven-game, six-day homestand on Friday with the first of four games against the Atlanta Braves, which includes a split doubleheader on Saturday before capping the series on Sunday. Miami then hosts the San Diego Padres starting Monday and going through Wednesday.

This story was originally published August 11, 2022 at 4:15 PM.

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.