Bullpen Breaks, Guardians Sweep Marlins to Close First Half

MIAMI — If this weekend showed anything, it is that the Miami Marlins could use a break. 

The Marlins fell to the Cleveland Guardians 5-2 on Sunday and were swept for the first time since dropping the end of May. 

The Marlins opted to use a bullpen game to close out the first half of the season as a way to give National League All-Star pitcher Max Meyer a little more rest. The Marlins used seven pitchers, beginning with Tyler Phillips, who, over the course of the season, went from a highly reliable reliever to a solid starting pitcher. 

“Circumstances presented themselves as being open to being stretched out and getting in the rotation, and I think he’s done a remarkable job in that capacity,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said.

Joey Cantillo struck out nine batters with only one earned run allowed through five innings to earn the win for the Guardians. 

"We just didn't really make a whole lot of adjustments against it," said McCullough. "We had the one inning where we were able to load them up with nobody out and were unable to cash in early on. They pitched well, we didn't do a whole lot offensively to make adjustments or really do a lot to stress them out during this series, which we've seen."

The Marlins fell behind from the beginning. Travis Bazzana drew a walk to lead off the game and stole second base. He scored on an RBI single from Brayan Rocchio, who later scored on a single from Kyle Manzardo to put Cleveland up 2-0 in the first inning.

“With a bullpen day, you've got to disrupt it,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “We kind of did that in the first and made them kind of go away right away.” 

The Marlins showed some fight in the third inning to cut Cleveland’s lead in half. Heriberto Hernandez doubled and scored on an RBI single from Xavier Edwards to make it a 2-1 game. 

Rocchio struck again in the fifth inning on a solo home run to extend the Guardians' lead to 3-1. 

Kahill Watson drove in a run on a single in the seventh inning to put Cleveland up 4-1. Watson was drafted by the Marlins out of high school in the first round but was traded to Cleveland in 2023. He went 3-for-12 with an RBI in his first series at loanDepot park. 

Chase DeLauter took Pete Fairbanks deep with a solo home run in the ninth inning, his 11th of the season. DeLauter, who was Cleveland’s first-round pick in 2022, is batting .278 with a .793 OPS and 46 RBI so far in his rookie season. 

“Really proud of our offense,” Vogt said. “We kept stringing it along. We kept adding on, and I think that was the key.”

Griffin Conine hit a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth, his fifth of the season. Conine came back from injury in late June and has slashed .302/.400/.558 with three home runs and seven RBI in his last 15 games. 

Otto Lopez went 0-for-12 during the series. The National League All-Star shortstop previously recorded a hit in 30 straight series. 

With the St. Louis Cardinals falling to the Atlanta Braves, the Marlins (52-45) enter the All-Star break in control of the third wild card spot. McCullough relayed the message for his team to “go home and enjoy your families" during the break.

“Everyone across the league has earned these few days to take a bit of a blow,” McCullough said. “We'll know when we come back from this that we have a sprint ahead of us. We certainly didn't finish and round out this half like like we had hoped to getting swept here, but I think we just got outplayed. We'll just have to go enjoy our time away a little bit, rest up, and get ready to start it back up in Milwaukee.”

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