Phillies Swept Out of Miami in Embarrassing Fashion Following a Blown Six-Run Lead in Finale
Philadelphia Phillies' Bryson Stott runs after hitting a two-run double during the third inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Wednesday, July 29, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell).
The Phillies are free-falling, and it’s coming at maybe the worst time of the season.
After opening up the second half with a 3-6 record at home, the Phillies began a much-needed six-game road trip down in South Beach for a three-game series against the Miami Marlins. The Phillies needed to get away from home; they needed to get away from the fans and the boos and take a week to clear their heads.
Unfortunately for them, the terrible baseball and inconsistencies continued in Miami, causing the Phillies to blow a late lead, get walked off in the opener, lose a terrible 1-0 ballgame in Game 2, and in the finale blow a 6-0 lead, getting swept by the Marlins.
The inconsistency of this Phillies team was on full display as the team got rolling with six runs of offense in the first five innings of the game, before eventually embarrassingly blowing that lead, capped off by a pinch-hit two-run bomb off the bat of Griffin Conine.
Philadelphia went back and forth in how they attacked each game, going from scoring tons of runs to not being able to buy a hit to scoring a bunch of runs again, and somehow not winning a single game in that series.
Like the previous night, runs seemed like they were going to be hard to come by. Jesus Luzardo, back in his old stomping grounds, continued his recent hot stretch on the mound, sending Miami down in order in the first and picking up a pair of strikeouts in the second.
After 12 straight innings of scoreless baseball from Philadelphia, Bryson Stott finally ended that streak in the third. He had a little help, in the form of back-to-back singles from Justin Crawford and Edmundo Sosa, putting two runners on, and Stott dug in with two outs and smoked a two-run double down the left field line.
While that was all the runs the Phillies scored in the second, the offense kept on churning in the fourth, with Bryan De La Cruz bringing home a third run thanks to a sac fly, and in the fourth, Trea Turner smoked a solo home run to left to lead off the inning.
The solo home run wasn’t the only piece of offense the Phillies produced in the fourth, as Stott worked a walk and Bryce Harper smoked a triple to right-center field, scoring Stott and setting himself up for another easy run with no outs. That out came quickly as the next batter, Alec Bohm, grounded a ball back up the middle for a base hit, extending the Phillies’ lead to six.
However, following the top of the fifth, the game officially flipped upside down with the Marlins taking the reins on the offensive side.
A leadoff double from Esteury Ruiz and a hit by pitch to Brian Navarreto put two runners on for Miami, and Otto Lopez brought one run in on a groundout, and Heriberto Hernandez smoked a two-run bomb to left, making it a three-run game.
Following no runs from either team in the sixth, the runs kept coming from Miami as Ruiz smacked another bashit, and Lopez brought in another run to make it 6-4. Following the fourth run allowed, Don Mattingly had seen enough and pulled Luzardo, ending his day after 6.1 innings, with two runners still aboard.
Seth Johnson came on for the biggest inning of the game with the heart of the Marlins order up and, despite picking up a quick pop-out, Johnson walked Hicks to load the bases, and Xavier Edwards stepped up and smoked a single to left to tie the game up at six all, blowing their lead.
The Phillies team as a whole looked deflated following that single, and their at-bats continued to show it in the eighth inning, going down in order. Jonathan Bowlan, who likely should’ve come in for Luzardo in the seventh inning, was set up to keep the game tied in the eighth.
However, after walking Kyle Stowers to start the inning, Conine pinch-hit for Navarreto, and he smoked a ball to deep center field for a go-ahead two-run bomb. So now trailing for the first time all game, the Phillies had three outs left to score two runs, and of course, miserably failed to do that.
Pete Fairbanks came on for the save for the second game in a row, and needed just 13 pitches to send Crawford, Sosa, and Turner down in order, completing the sweep over Philadelphia 8-6. It’s the first time the Phillies have been swept in Miami since 2022, and the Phillies are now 3-9 since the All-Star break.
Matt Brown
Matt has been a Philadelphia sports fan all his life and spent four years at Penn State University majoring in Broadcast Journalism and minoring in Sports Studies. He previously covered Penn State’s field hockey, men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball teams while writing for a Penn State blog called Onward State. He has now covered the Phillies, Eagles, and Sixers for Philly Sports Reports since October 2024 and wants to pursue a career in Sports Journalism.
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