Marlins Sweep Diamondbacks Behind Powerful Pitching

MIAMI — Manager Clayton McCullough said after Wednesday’s win that the Miami Marlins coming back from last place to playoff contention goes back “to our ability to pitch and play and play defense.”

The Marlins showed their pitching prowess again on Thursday with a 2-0 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks to complete their second sweep of June. 

“We’re playing a much cleaner brand, pitching at a much higher level,” McCullough said, “and I think that we’ll continue to get better.”

The Marlins (34-35) enter their Pennsylvania road trip one game away from returning to .500 for the first time since April. The Marlins have won all three series and eight of their last nine, including five straight, since the start of June. 

“I think we got a couple of breaks in that Tampa series,” Marlins closer Pete Fairbanks told the Marlins Radio Network after the game. “Anytime that you can get a fortuitous break, you've got to take advantage of it. It feels like the guys are putting together good at-bats, they’re competing on the mound.”

In an offensively quiet game, the Marlins did their damage with a sacrifice fly by Xavier Edwards in the first inning and an RBI single by Jakob Marsee in the fourth inning. Otto Lopez went 2-for-4 for his fifth straight multi-hit game to lead the Marlins at the plate.

“Everything that we think that we are, we’re executing at a high level,” Fairbanks said. 

Led by a pair of rotation band-aids (Ryan Gusto and Tyler Phillips), the Marlins recorded back-to-back shutout wins at home for the first time since the 2019 season. 

Phillips threw five shutout innings with only two hits allowed and five strikeouts in what has been his best outing. McCullough said Phillips “set the tone.”

“He’s got a lot of weapons,” McCullough said. 

McCullough said the Marlins are prepared to keep Phillips in the starting rotation and allow him more opportunities to push past the fifth inning. 

“He had some more pitches that he could’ve gone with today,” McCullough said. “We’re at a point now with Tyler with ups and pitches he’s built out where he can go into the later part of games. He was efficient as well to get through five.”

The bullpen combined to strike out eight batters with one hit allowed over the final four innings. Fairbanks struck out two batters in a perfect ninth inning for his eighth save of the season. While the most expensive reliever in Marlins history ($13M) has a 6.63 ERA on the season, the 32-year-old closer has given up only four earned runs with 20 strikeouts in 12.1 innings (2.92 ERA) in 13 home appearances. 

“Anytime you can put 18 scoreless in a row on a team, that feels pretty good,” Fairbanks said, “and just to reward the faith of the organization and the staff … I’ve been fired up in less circumstances.”

The Marlins are well prepared for their road series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Sandy Alcantara (5-4, 4.33 ERA) and Max Meyer (6-0, 2.85 ERA) are slated to pitch, with a bullpen game sandwiched in between.

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