With their 8-7 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday, the Miami Marlins are no longer a team trying desperately to snap a record-setting losing streak that negated all progress. 

Now they are a team that is in the mix with five other teams hovering over .500 for the third and final National League wild card spot. 

Returning to the win column has the Marlins (53-54) resetting their position in the standings, where they are two games behind the Arizona Diamondbacks and Pittsburgh Pirates. Another win over the Phillies on Tuesday can make their recent skid feel like a forgotten nightmare, rather than a sobering reality. 

The Marlins will send their ace on the mound in hopes of capturing the series against their divisional rivals. Alcantara is coming off a rough outing that started fine at the beginning but resulted in five runs allowed including a career-high three homers over seven innings. 

Alcantara (10-6, 4.01 ERA) leads MLB in innings pitched (143.2) and quality starts (15). Both of which are qualities that led to him winning the Cy Young Award in 2022.

Alcantara has faced the Phillies 23 times in his career. His most recent outing against Philadelphia resulted in a 12-4 Marlins win on June 17. He has a career 7-11 record with a 3.84 ERA and 123 strikeouts over 140.2 innings against Philadelphia, a team he has battled against more than any other opponent in his career. 

Alcantara became the Marlins' new career leader in strikeouts and is tied for the most quality starts. Marlins.tv reported in their pregame show on Monday that the Miami front office has no plans to trade their ace by the MLB trade deadline on Aug. 3. 

The Phillies will send Aaron Nola (3-8, 5.82 ERA) on the mound in hopes of forcing a rubber match. The Phillies (57-50), who hold the second wild card spot with a two-game lead, are 3-7 in their last 10 games. They have been slightly better on the road this season, posting a 29-23 record away from Philadelphia. 

Heriberto Hernández drove in three runs including a solo home run on Monday. His bat, along with Griffin Conine (2-for-5, 1 HR, 2RBI) was instrumental in the Marlins snapping their 12-game losing streak. 

“It felt good,” Hernández said through an interpreter during his postgame press conference. “We all had pressure, we were all sad, we all had a lot of feelings. We were all asking ourselves, ‘What was going on? What are we not doing?’ And thank God today we could fight from the first inning to the last and get out of that stretch.”

Despite being sent down to Triple-A earlier this season, Hernandez now leads the Marlins in home runs this season with 15.

He is slashing .303/.354/.684 (23x76) in 21 games in July, with eight doubles, seven home runs, and 12 RBI. Hernandez also has a .913 OPS and .275 AVG in 55 games since his recall from Triple-A Jacksonville on May 7.

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