Phillies Blow Late Lead as Marlins Avoid Sweep

The Philadelphia Phillies led for most of the afternoon, but the visiting Miami Marlins rallied late for a victory on Sunday at Citizens Bank Park.

The Phillies had a golden opportunity to sweep a series for the first time in more than a month. But the visiting Miami Marlins rallied late to earn a 5-4 victory on Sunday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park in South Philly.

For four innings, everything was going the Phillies way, with the offense producing early runs and starting pitcher Alec Asher once again humming along without incident.

After scoring five runs in Saturday night’s 1st inning, the Phillies put two more on the board in the opening frame on Sunday afternoon against Marlins disappointing starter Andrew Cashner.

Cashner began by walking the speedy Cesar Hernandez and Roman Quinn. Trouble was, Hernandez was thrown out stealing, which would ultimately prove huge when the Phillies scored twice.

Odubel Herrera followed the walk to Quinn with a base hit. When Tommy Joseph followed that with another single, Quinn came rolling on home and the Phils had a 1-0 lead. On batter later, Freddy Galvis singled home Herrera, and it was a 2-0 lead.

In the bottom of the 3rd, Herrera led off the inning with his 14th home run of the season way out to deep right field, pushing the Phillies lead out to a 3-0 margin.

Meanwhile, Asher was cruising along, shutting the Marlins out while allowing just three hits over the first four frames.

But in the top of the 5th inning, he fell apart. Asher began the inning by hitting Jeff Mathis with a pitch. Adeiny Hechavarria followed with a base hit, and the Marlins had something going.

With one out, Dee Gordon singled to center, scoring Mathis to put the Marlins on the board. Derek Dietrich followed with an RBI single of his own to score Hechavarria, and the Phillies lead was sliced to a 3-2 margin.

In the bottom of the 6th, Freddy Galvis drove his 20th home run of the year over the right-center field wall to extend the lead back out to 4-2.

The blast gave the Phillies four infielders with 20+ home runs, as Galvis joined both 1st basemen Joseph and Ryan Howard, and 3rd baseman Maikel Franco in reaching that mark.

That 4-2 lead held into the top of the 8th, when manager Pete Mackanin made the move to bring in his usually reliable setup man, Hector Neris.

But Neris (4-4) didn’t have it in this one, and showed it from the start. He committed the cardinal pitching sin of walking the leadoff batter, Dietrich. Then with one out, Christian Yelich drove a game-tying home run out on a line to left field.

Hernandez then committed an error on a ball hit off the bat of Marcell Ozuna on which the Fish outfielder moved to 2nd base, which proved doubly big when Neris got the next batter, which should have ended the inning.

Instead, Ozuna was in scoring position, and J.T. Realmuto brought him home with an RBI single that put the Marlins on top for the first time in the game at 5-4.

That score would hold as relievers Mike Dunn (4-1), David Phelps, and A.J. Ramos closed out the Phillies, with Ramos nailing down his 37th Save, allowing the Marlins to avoid the weekend sweep.

“We should’ve won that game,” Mackanin said per MLB.com contributors. “That popup that fell in, it’s right at Tommy Joseph. If Cesar is going to make an attempt to catch the ball, he’s gotta call it, and he never said a word. So that was a mental mistake on his part.”

The Phillies will have an off-day at home on Monday, fortuitous for the team and its fans, since Monday is expected to be a day of torrential rains in the Philly area.

The club will conclude this homestand with a pair of Interleague contests against the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday and Wednesday.

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