Trea Turner delivers on his birthday as Phillies comeback to split series with Marlins
Courtesy of Philadelphia Phillies via X
Sunday afternoon at humid Citizens Bank Park had a little bit of everything.
The pitcher with the best ERA in baseball had a bad start, multiple errors were made, the Marlins led by four in the fifth, and somehow the other team still won.
The Phillies, without Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto, and Kyle Schwarber, came back to win the finale of the four-game set with the Marlins, 7-6, and split the series in front of a sold-out crowd of 43,222.
Ranger Suarez entered this game with an ERA of 1.83 ERA and exited with a 2.27. He was pulled after 4.2 innings, allowing nine hits, six runs, two walks, and did not have a strikeout on the day. It is the first time in 83 career starts that he has not gotten one strikeout, according to MLB.com‘s Paul Casella.
Suarez did not get much help from his defense, however. They made five errors on the day, four of them coming in the first five innings. Suarez made one on a play to first, Nick Castellanos made one in right where he bobbled the ball on the track, Rafael Marchan costed a third-out with catcher’s interference, Alec Bohm made an error at first, and finally, Trea Turner underthrew one to first. Turner’s error probably should have been charged to Bohm, as he should have scooped it.
The bullpen came through, though. Jose Ruiz, Seranthony Dominguez, Gregory Soto, and Jeff Hoffman allowed just two hits and no runs in 4.1 innings.
The Phillies offense struggled majorly in this series against Miami. They had scored just four runs in their past two games coming into this one, and some struggles held over to Sunday, even though they scored seven runs. They probably should have scored double-digit runs as they left 13 runners on base and went just 3-for-17 with runners in scoring position.
They got off to a hot start, as Bohm rocketed a two-run homer over the left-center field wall to give the Phils a 2-1 lead in the first. It was his 10th home run of the season and put him back as the MLB’s leader in RBIs with 68.
Then they went back-to-back innings with keeping the bases loaded. Brandon Marsh and Castellanos brought the scoring back both doubled to score a run and start the comeback.
Then in the sixth, the bases were loaded once again. Down three runs, Castellanos came through again, as he singled to drive in Marchan and Bryson Stott, making it a one-run game. Castellanos had himself a four-hit, three-RBI day.
An inning later, Whit Merrifield and David Dahl walked to start the seventh and advanced a bag when Marchan laid down a bunt. Then it was the birthday boy, Turner, who drove both home with a single that ended up completing the largest comeback of the season.
On his 31st birthday, Turner had a three-hit day and drove in the tying and go-ahead runs. Talk about a good present.
While it was a struggle, the Phillies got a series split and improved to 55-29 on the year. They now leave for Chicago for a three-game set starting Tuesday.
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