PHILADELPHIA — While Marlins manager Clayton McCullough is no stranger to postseason clubhouses, the first-time skipper’s roster features 13 rookies being introduced to meaningful baseball in September.
It would be easy for the final week of the season to get overwhelming, so McCullough’s message was simple enough on Tuesday: The club is playing some of its best baseball. Tune out the noise about how important these games are.
Xavier Edwards produced the go-ahead sacrifice fly in the 11th inning and lefty Josh Simpson stranded the tying run at third in the Marlins’ 6-5 comeback victory in 11 innings over the National League East champion Phillies on Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park to keep the club’s slim postseason hopes alive.
The win extended the Marlins’ streak to seven, with 11 victories in their last 12 games. Miami (77-80) remained four games back of New York (81-76) for the third and final NL Wild Card spot with five games remaining. The Marlins’ elimination number is two, though; the NL East rivals will close out the regular season this weekend at loanDepot park.
“I love the sense of urgency that the guys are coming here and playing with, and that they’re just playing pitch to pitch and kind of play this thing out every out of the games,” McCullough said. “I think that’s something that we’ve seen in this group all season long. And I think now knowing that we know we don’t have much of a leash, it’s every day is do or die, and that might not be enough, but we’re going to keep giving it a shot as long as we have one.”
Cabrera allowed three runs on a pair of homers by NL MVP candidate Kyle Schwarber and Otto Kemp over four innings, finding his stride at the end by striking out three of the final seven batters he faced.
“Fantastic,” Cabrera said via interpreter Luis Dorante Jr. “I was truly pushing for this, last outings of the year. And mostly, being back and being able to help the team win some games, that was the most important part.”
Meanwhile at the plate, Miami couldn’t solve NL Cy Young candidate Cristopher Sánchez over seven scoreless frames. But the lineup chased former Marlin David Robertson during a two-run eighth.
Trailing 3-0, rookie Griffin Conine lofted Robertson’s 3-1 cutter over the right-field wall for a solo homer with one out in his return from the 60-day injured list. Otto Lopez and rookie Liam Hicks, who had pinch-hit for rookie Brian Navarreto, who had entered the game for rookie Agustín Ramírez after a mental lapse, then knocked back-to-back two-out singles. Lopez would score on center fielder Harrison Bader’s throwing error on Hicks’ hit.
In the ninth, facing one of the game’s top closers, rookie Heriberto Hernández lined right-hander Jhoan Duran’s center-cut 100.9 mph four-seamer over the left-field wall for a game-tying shot.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, we tied this game. Oh my God, I tied this game,’” said Hernández, who called his 10th homer the biggest of his professional career. “‘OK, we tie this game, we’re going to win this game.’ That was my feeling.”
Righty Calvin Faucher took over in the bottom of the frame, giving up a leadoff single to pinch-hitter Rafael Marchán but getting ahead 0-2 to Max Kepler before play was halted by rain for one hour and nine minutes.
Following the delay, righty Michael Petersen replaced Faucher and retired the next three batters in order to send the game to extras. Petersen returned to the mound after Miami scored two runs in the 10th, getting the first two outs before issuing an intentional walk to Schwarber. Alec Bohm chased Petersen with an RBI single, and rookie Simpson gave up the game-tying RBI single to pinch-hitter Nick Castellanos.
In the 11th, Hernández singled on a comebacker off righty Lou Trivino to put runners on the corners for Edwards, who lined a changeup to right field. Simpson, in his second inning of work, then induced three consecutive groundouts, including Bryson Stott’s comebacker, to secure the win.
“That was awesome,” said Simpson, who entered with an 8.23 ERA in 28 outings. “That was a special game, just with the rain delay there, going into that, knowing I was going to be potentially in that situation, was exciting. Kind of all year, just working up towards that and being able to perform there was really special, especially this time of year. So it was really, really cool.”
