The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Phillies head to break in a mini slump
Phillies head into All-Star break after losing 2 out of 3 in Miami
The Marlins’ rally in the fifth lasted so long Phillies first baseman Carlos Santana headed for the dugout after the second out, thinking the inning was over.
Instead Miami scored four more runs.
Brian Anderson hit a three-run homer in Miami’s eight-run fifth, sending the Marlins to a 10-5 victory over Philadelphia on Sunday.
Santana took a couple of steps toward the dugout after fielding a grounder and touching first for the second out in the fifth. He might have had a shot at an inning-ending 3-6-3 double play, but Phillies manager Gabe Kapler said he doubted it.
“It was probably a one-out play,” Kapler said. “Obviously losing track of the outs is something that can’t happen. He’s one of our most locked in and focused players most of the time, so I think he has earned a pass on this one.”
Marlins manager Don Mat
tingly lost track of the runs in the inning, there were so many.
“We throw the six up there — or it was eight, right?” he said.
Miami totaled eight hits in the fifth against three pitchers. Cameron Maybin homered and singled in the inning, and Justin Bour had two singles, with his second hit driving in the final two runs for an 8-5 lead.
“It was crazy,” Anderson said. “Cam’s bomb got us going. It seemed like we were getting our pitches and hitting them, and nobody was missing anything, and if they did miss, it kept dropping.”
The Marlins began the day with the worst record in the NL East, but they took the series against the division-leading Phils and have gone 21-18 since June 5.
“Guys are playing with confidence,” All-Star catcher J.T. Realmuto said. “The hitters, especially the young guys, are starting to gain a lot of confidence and get a lot better.”
The Phillies (53-42) head into the break with an ugly loss, but still lead Atlanta by a half-game in the NL East.
“I’m going to take away all the positive things we did in the first half,” Kapler said. “We’ve had a really, really spectacular first half.”
Cesar Hernandez hit a bases-loaded triple during a five-run fourth for Philadelphia. Miami’s rally began with Maybin’s one-out solo homer against Enyel De Los Santos.
Following consecutive singles, Anderson also homered. Miguel Rojas hit a two-out, two-run single off Edubray Ramos (3-1) to put the Marlins ahead 6-5. Bour drove in two more runs against Adam Morgan.
It was the most runs scored by the Marlins and allowed by the Phillies in an inning this season.
Ramos thought he struck out Martin Prado to end the fifth with Philadelphia still leading, 5-4. But Prado ended up with a walk.
“It changed the inning completely,” Ramos said. “I thought we were going to be out of the inning with the called strike, but the umpire called it a ball and everything changed.” PITCHING LINES » De Los Santos, making his second big league start, was charged with five runs in 4 1/3 innings. The righthander was recalled before the game from Triple-A Lehigh Valley to start for Zach Eflin, who went on the disabled list with a finger blister.
Ramos was charged with three runs, and his ERA rose from 1.11 to 1.93.
Miami starter Jose Urena allowed five runs and departed after throwing 42 pitches to get through the fourth, matching his shortest outing this year. He came into the game with the worst run support of any NL starter, but for a change his teammates came to the rescue.
Four Miami relievers combined for five hitless innings. Elieser Hernandez (2-5) threw a scoreless fifth.
“Everybody got the right outs,” Mattingly said. REVERSALS » After initially being ruled out, Realmuto reached in the third inning on an infield hit thanks to a replay reversal. Before the next pitch, De Los Santos picked him off .