Marlins back to within one game of .500: Ten quick hits entering long homestand
This Marlins season appeared to be at something of an early crossroads late Monday night, when Miami squandered a two-run ninth inning lead at Dodger Stadium, lost both the game and closer Peter Fairbanks (for a time) to a finger injury and fell a season-worst three games under .500.
But they have righted themselves since — beating MLB’s two-time defending champions, including ace Shohei Ohtani to move to 15-16 entering a 10-game homestand that begins Friday evening at loanDepot Park.
First up: Four games against the Phillies, who recently promoted former Marlins manager Don Mattingly to interim manager after Phillies president of baseball operations (and ex-Marlins general manager) Dave Dombrowski fired Rob Thomson.
Eury Perez pitches Friday’s opener against Zack Wheeler (7:10 p.m., Marlins.TV).
A few quick notes:
▪ The Marlins are 10-6 at home and 5-10 on the road.
▪ The Marlins’ pitching staff has a 2.84 ERA at home, which ranks second in the National League and fourth in MLB, and has held opponents to a .192 batting average at home, which leads the NL and ranks second in MLB.
Perez has a 2.50 ERA in three starts at home, compared with a 7.43 in three starts on the road. Perez has been haunted by home runs this season; he already has allowed six of them.
▪ Second baseman Xavier Edwards leads the National League with a .432 on-base percentage.
The Marlins have three players in the top 10 in the National League in batting average in Edwards (second at .336), shortstop Otto Lopez (fourth at .322) and catcher Liam Hicks (tied for ninth at .315).
▪ With his 28th RBI on Wednesday, Hicks set an MLB record for most RBI as a catcher before May 1. He hit his seventh homer of the season Wednesday, His 28 RBI are tied for second in the NL, and his .576 slugging percentage ranks sixth in the NL.
▪ The Marlins have allowed the most stolen bases in baseball but entered Thursday tied for the league in stolen bases.
▪ Sandy Alcantara, who won Wednesday’s game in Los Angeles, leads the National League with 47.1 innings pitched; he has a 3.04 ERA and has held opponents to a .226 average.
▪ The Marlins are eighth in batting average at .250 and seventh in home batting average at .266.
▪ Through 16 home games, the Marlins are 29th in attendance at 12,032 per game, down from 14,276 last season.
Only the A’s, who are playing in Sacramento while their Las Vegas stadium is built, are worse, at 10,233.
▪ MLB Network’s Ron Darling, speaking Wednesday night on the Marlins: “What if you had a team that always tried to win on the margins and all of a sudden they have talent?That’s what you have… They’ve got to go 45-35 by the All-Star break to get where you want to me.”
▪ The rest of the pitching matchups for the Phillies series:
Max Meyer vs. the Phillies’ Aaron Nola at 4:10 p.m. Saturday.
Chris Paddack vs. former Marlins pitcher Jesus Luzardo at 1:40 p.m. Sunday.
Janson Junk vs. Christopher Sanchez at 6:40 p.m. Monday.
After the Phillies series, the Marlins play host to the Orioles next Tuesday through Thursday, then wrap up the homestand with a three-game set against Washington.
This story was originally published April 30, 2026 at 4:51 PM.
