Miami Marlins fall behind early, can’t rally back in Game 1 loss to Philadelphia Phillies
The Miami Marlins had nearly no answer for Philadelphia Phillies starter Zack Wheeler.
And now, their magical season is on the brink of ending.
The Marlins lost 4-1 to the Phillies in Game 1 of a best-of-3 National League wild card series on Tuesday at Citizens Bank Park, with Wheeler tossing 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball.
Miami must now win back-to-back games against Philadelphia to advance to the National League Division Series.
That doesn’t seem too impossible until you consider the fact that no road team entering this season has won a wild card series in the best-of-3 format (2020 and 2022) after dropping Game 1.
“They know what’s at stake,” first-year Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “They know what tomorrow means.”
They also know that they’ve been in this position before — at least in the regular season — and have defied the odds and logic all year. They had 41 comeback wins — second-most in MLB behind only the Reds — and made it into the playoffs despite having just 23.6 percent odds entering the year to reach the postseason, according to Fangraphs.
Miami has won eight three-game series this season when they dropped the series opener, with two of those eight coming against the Phillies.
“I don’t think anybody plays this game very well when they’re panicking,” said first baseman Josh Bell, who had three of Miami’s seven hits. “We’ve won two in a row before. That’s the mentality going into tomorrow.”
To have any chance of keeping their season alive, though, the Marlins will have to execute much better than they did Tuesday.
That starts with the offense having a better approach against Phillies Game 2 starter Aaron Nola than they did against Wheeler.
The Marlins managed just two hits in the first six innings against Wheeler — a leadoff single in the third from Jesus Sanchez that was erased by a double play and a two-out single from Josh Bell in the fourth — before they finally got to him in the seventh. Bell hit a one-out double and then Jake Burger and Bryan De La Cruz hit back-to-back infield singles to score Bell and chase Wheeler from the game.
Their rally attempt in the inning ended there, though, with pinch-hitter Yuli Gurriel striking out on three pitches against left-handed reliever Jose Alvarado.
Overall, Alvarado (one inning), Jeff Hoffman (1/3 inning) and Craig Kimbrel (one inning) shut down the Marlins for the final 2 1/3 innings, with Kimbrel logging the save.
Jorge Soler went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts. Jazz Chisholm Jr. went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts. Luis Arraez, starting for the first time since Sept. 23 but still clearly hobbled by his left ankle injury, went 1 for 4 with a two-out single in the eighth.
Meanwhile, Marlins left-handed pitcher Jesus Luzardo, who grew up in South Florida and attended Game 3 of the 2003 World Series, dealt with traffic on the basepaths early and often in what ended up as an abbreviated start.
Luzardo gave up three runs on eight hits while striking out five but needed 90 pitches to make it through four innings.
The 26-year-old, who celebrated his birthday Saturday on the day the Marlins clinched their playoff spot, worked around a first-inning jam when the Phillies had runners on second and third and no outs for a scoreless inning and retired the side in the second before Philadelphia’s offense finally struck.
Alec Bohm opened scoring in the third with an RBI that scored Johan Rojas, who led off with a single after a nine-pitch at-bat and got to second on one of Luzardo’s two wild pitches.
Philadelphia then tacked on two more runs in the fourth on four consecutive hits. J.T. Realmuto led off with a single and Nick Castellanos followed with a double to once again put runners on second and third with no outs. Bryson Stott followed with a single that scored Realmuto, but Castellanos was thrown out at home on a great throw from Chisholm in center field. A Christian Pache single then scored Stott, who got to second on the Chisholm throw home and reached third on a wild pitch.
“They weren’t getting in and out of at-bats really quick,” Luzardo said. “They worked the count well and make you come back over the zone. They were singling me to death, it felt like. They weren’t taking those big swings and trying to put balls over the fence.”
A.J. Puk, George Soriano, Husacar Brazoban threw three shutout innings out of the bullpen before Steven Okert gave up one run in the eighth, keeping the game close enough for the offense to have a chance to rally.
Miami only scratched across the one run in the seventh inning.
And now, the Marlins, like they have so many times this year, will have to rally from a deficit to keep their season alive.
“It feels like we’ve been playing must-wins for the entire month of September,” Burger said. “It’s a similar spot. We’re used to it. Just wake up tomorrow and get back at it.”
This story was originally published October 3, 2023 at 10:55 PM.
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