Phillies Beat Marlins 5-2 as Offense Heats Up and Kerkering Earns First MLB Save
Jun 16, 2025; Miami, Florida, USA; Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner (7) rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run in the first inning against the Miami Marlins at loanDepot Park. Mandatory Credit: Jim Rassol-Imagn Images
The Phillies kept their winning ways, while not scoring runs like they did this last weekend, but they found a way to hold onto a 5-2 win over the Miami Marlins at LoanDepot Park. Led by Mick Abel‘s strong start, Trea Turner‘s solid offensive game, and Orion Kerkering‘s first save of his Major League career.
The game was close until the 9th, when the Phils got some insurance for the Phillies to win their 42nd win, pulling them to within 2.5 games of the New York Mets in the NL East. It wasn’t the prettiest win of the season, but they beat a team they should beat, which is a stark difference from the beginning of June.
Coming into tonight’s game against the Marlins, the Phillies are starting to resemble the team before the short-lived June swoon happened.
In the first 7 games of June, the Phillies were not hitting at all. The offense only mustered 2.57 runs per game, with a .181 average and slugged at .288.
In the last 6 games, the offense has turned it up. They’re 5-1 over that time, hitting .332 with a respectable .493 slugging percentage, producing 6.17 runs per game. The pitching has also stepped up, with 5 quality starts, a 2.73 team ERA, and 1.04 WHIP over that time.
This, in addition to Sandy Alcantara struggling against the Phils in his last 9 games, he’s 0-5 with a 4.58 ERA, and the Phillies are hitting .274 against him. There were many positives for the Phillies coming into this game. The first batter of the game, Turner, took the second pitch to center field for a home run.
After this, Alcantara settled down, but the Phillies did something that was sorely missing the first week of this month: they were battling and going deeper into counts and getting pitches from Alcantara. They were also hitting the ball hard.
In the 4th inning, Max Kepler took a hanging slider that was down in the zone, and golfed it over the fence in the right field corner.
In the 5 innings Alcantra was in the game tonight, there were 9 balls in play with an exit velocity of 95 or more. So even though the Phillies only scored 2, they were hitting the ball hard. They were tagging Alcantara, even if they were hitting the ball right at the Marlins.
Brandon Marsh smoked a triple to right, and then Turner stayed hot, singling him in for a 3-1 lead. The top of the 9th, the Phillies brought home 2 insurance runs on a bases loaded single by Alec Bohm for some insurance runs.
In addition to this, the starting pitching continued to be really solid as well.
Abel did hit a rough spot, giving up a run in the second after a triple from Kyle Stowers, which was a blip on the radar because he looked great other than that. His breaking pitches had the snap we’ve come to expect from him, but more importantly, he was attacking the zone with the fastball, which wasn’t there in his last start.
Taijuan Walker closed out the 6th in short order, setting them down on 9 pitches. Jordan Romano shut down the Marlins in the 7th, Matt Strahm gave up a run in the 8th, and Kerkering slammed the door shut in the 9th for his first MLB save, earning the Phillies another hard-fought win.
Kerkering has certainly earned the trust of Rob Thomson, putting the trust in him to close tonight’s game. Is this a sign of the emergence of another arm for the “closer by committee” that Thomson is going with? Only time will tell, but this is a great sign for the Phils moving forward.
Tomorrow, Jesus Luzardo takes the bump against his former team for the first time in Miami, facing Cal Quantrill.
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Steve Hamilton
Steve may have been born in California, but don’t let that fool you. After dating a local woman and clashing with her and her family over sports for decades, he has an affinity for Philly sports. Balancing love for Philly and Bay Area sports teams may seem impossible, we can all agree that the Cowboys are the true evil.
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