Phillips’ walk-off hit scuttles Miami again
ATLANTA — With the winning run 90 feet away Sunday, the Miami Marlins tried to set up a protective net around the infield to keep a potential winning hit from getting through.
It didn’t work as Brandon Phillips threaded a walk-off winning single into center field for the second consecutive day, this time off rookie reliever Drew Steckenrider. The Atlanta Braves’ 5-4 win clinched a series that left the Marlins lamenting a chance to sweep that got away in their first visit to SunTrust Park.
The Miami bullpen failed to hold multiple-run leads in both games. In what may turn out to be a pivotal weekend in the season, the Marlins could have climbed back to within three games of .500. Instead they left town seven under (30-37).
“You feel like you had chances to win both games,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “[Saturday] we’re up four and weren’t able to hold on.”
Nor were they able contain Phillips again with the game on the line. They went to extreme measures to do so with an extra man in the infield.
With runners on first and third and one out in the ninth, Mattingly brought Marcell Ozuna in from left field and stationed him where the second baseman normally plays. Dee Gordon was just to the right of the bag.
When Phillips sent a grounder to the left of second, there was a moment of hesitation as shortstop JT Riddle and Gordon glanced at each other, both wondering if the other was going for the ball.
“That was the thought; that was kind of why I stopped,” Riddle said. “I should have dove for it and caught it.”
Gordon said he realized if he went for the ball he couldn’t have gotten back to the base in time to turn a double play that was needed to prevent the winning run.
In hindsight, Riddle regretted not taking charge of the play.
“Yeah for sure, I think we turn the double play, even if there’s a dive involved,” he said. “Dee’s standing on the bag. I don’t know how hard Phillips was running down the line, but I think so.
“It was one of those balls kind of up the middle. Should have dove for it.”
Ozuna had hit a tying two-run homer in the eighth after relievers David Phelps and Nick Wittgren each let a pair of inherited runners score as the Braves rallied for four runs in the seventh.
“We lost. It could have been a lot different, but it’s not. It’s baseball,” Phelps said. “It’s frustrating, obviously. We took a lead into the seventh today, we took a lead into the sixth [Saturday]. These are games, as a bullpen, we’ve got to do better job.”
Starter Jose Urena had blanked the Braves for six innings on one hit despite hitting three batters in the first three innings.
Bidding for a win in his fifth consecutive start, Urena ended up with a nodecision after serving back-to-back singles to open the seventh. Both scored off Phelps, who retired only one batter on a sacrifice fly. Wittgren came in and served up a two-run single to Nick Markakis on the first pitch he threw.
Urena’s day got off to an odd start when he hit Matt Adams and Kurt Suzuki after Matt Kemp led off the second with a single.
Urena regained command to retire the bottom three hitters to escape the bases-loaded jam, including making an athletic play on a dribbler near the mound to get a force at home.
But the Marlins were left kicking themselves for letting a pair of winnable games get away.
In one instance they failed to capitalize with runners at the corners and one out when Giancarlo Stanton struck out and Gordon got caught in a rundown. Riddle attempted to score and didn’t make it.
Stanton went 1-for-14 in the series. Ozuna was 0-for-9 before hitting his 18th homer off Jose Ramirez.