Bryson Stott's colossal home run powered Philadelphia's victory, extending their win streak under Don Mattingly as Miami mounted a late, thrilling comeback.
MIAMI — The Philadelphia Phillies remain undefeated under interim manager Don Mattingly.
Bryson Stott hit a three-run home run to highlight a Phillies’ 6-5 win over the Miami Marlins on Friday. The Phillies (13-19) are 4-0 since Mattingly, a former Marlins skipper, took over as interim manager.
“That’s a good team. They fight till the end,” Stott said on the Marlins after the game. “We play them a ton and we know that they’re not going to roll over.”
The Marlins took a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Otto Lopez hit what first appeared to be a solo home run, but an appeal from the Phillies led to it being ruled a double. He scored on a double by Xavier Edwards.
The Phillies got to Marlins right-hander Eury Pérez in the fourth inning. A single by Brandon Marsh and a Bryson Stott walk set up an RBI single by Alec Bohm to tie the game. Justin Crawford hit an RBI double to give Philadelphia a 2-1 lead.
The Phillies added to their lead in the seventh inning. Bryce Harper hit a sharp double to right field and scored on a single by Edmundo Sosa. Stott’s home run made it a 6-1 game.
The Marlins (15-17) struck back in the eighth inning. Jakob Marsee led off the inning with a single to center field, and Kyle Stowers drew a walk to put two runners on base. A single by Lopez scored Marsee and set up Stowers to eventually score on a sacrifice fly by Liam Hicks.
The Marlins added their third run of the inning on a single by Agustín Ramírez, who advanced to third base on a pinch-hit double by Connor Norby. However, the rally ended after Christopher Morel was called out on strikes.
The Fish continued to fight in the ninth inning, despite the loss. Javier Sanoja led off the inning with a walk and scored on a single by Lopez. Edwards filed out of the center field to end the game.
"We see with the group day in and day out, they will just continue to hang in there," Marlins manager Clayton McCullough during his postgame press conference. "We came up short, but I loved how we were able to finish that one off."
Lopez led the Marlins at the plate with three hits and two RBI to improve his batting average to .333 on the season, which now tops the Miami leaderboard.
Before Lopez’s at-bat, Stowers was called out on strikes and was ejected for his reaction to the call. The Marlins used up their ABS challenges before the ninth inning so they were stuck with the umpire’s call. Stowers’ ejection led to McCullough being tossed out as well for arguing against it.
“[The umpire] didn’t appreciate what Stowers said,” McCullough said. “I thought it was a little quick. A big moment in the game there and I certainly know Kyle wanted to come through and he didn’t agree with it.”
Pérez went five innings for the Marlins, allowing two runs on four hits with two walks and six strikeouts. Cade Gibson, making his first big league appearance of the season, was charged with four runs on five hits with a walk and a strikeout in 1.2 innings of work. Lake Bacher went 2.1 hitless innings of relief with three strikeouts.
"In general, I thought I had a good outing," Pérez said through an interpreter postgame. "My pitches were working very well, but they got aggressive, mostly on the first pitch and there was some damage."
Phillies right-handed pitcher Zach Wheeler went six innings having allowed only one run on three hits with two walks and eight strikeouts. Reliever Jonathan Bowlan was charged with three runs in 0.2 innings. Brad Keller earned his first save of the season with two strikeouts and an earned run.
The Marlins will look to even the series on Saturday with Max Meyer (1-0, 3.30 ERA) on the mound against Phillies right-hander Andrew Painter (1-2, 5.25 ERA).
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