PHILADELPHIA — The Miami Marlins capped a wild, nearly four-hour game with a three-run ninth inning to beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 11-9, on Tuesday at Citizens Bank Park.
The Marlins are now 28-32 on the season. The Phillies fell to 31-31.
Just how wild was the game? The Marlins rallied from a four-run deficit after at one point being up by four runs themselves and then were down a run heading into the final inning before they continued a strong offensive showing against the Phillies bullpen.
Miami trailed by one heading into the final inning when Rhys Hoskins, who had the walk-off hit on Monday to begin the series, hit a go-ahead home run off Steven Okert in the eighth inning to make the score 9-8. Hoskins finished the game with four hits and drove in six of the Phillies’ nine runs. His first home run, a three-run shot, tied the game in the fourth inning.
But the Marlins, who entered Tuesday 0-26 when trailing after eight innings, did enough to retake the lead in the ninth.
Each of the Marlins’ first five hitters got on base against the Phillies’ Corey Knebel, who threw just four strikes on 16 pitches. Miguel Rojas reached on an Alec Bohm throwing error to lead off the frame before both Jacob Stallings and Jazz Chisholm Jr. drew walks to load the base. Garrett Cooper tied the game with an RBI single through the left side.
Jesus Aguilar, who hit a two-run home run in the first inning, then hit a go-ahead two-run double off Andrew Bellatti to give Miami the lead for good. It came two pitches after Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto dropped a foul ball that allowed Aguilar’s at-bat to continue.
Tanner Scott pitched a scoreless ninth and recorded his fifth save of the season.
As for the rest of the game? Here’s the condensed version:
— Miami went up four runs in the first inning on two-run home runs from Aguilar and Avisail Garcia.
— The Marlins lost the lead when the Phillies scored four runs, capped by Hoskins’ first home run, across the third and fourth innings against Trevor Rogers (more on him in a minute).
— Philadelphia followed up by scoring four runs in the fifth after recording five combined hits off Dylan Floro and Richard Bleier.
— Miami then tied the game with a four-run seventh inning on a three-run home run from Stallings and solo shot from Chisholm.
— The Phillies took the lead again when Hoskins hit his go-ahead home run off Okert, sending a slider on a full-count a projected 353 feet to left field. The lead didn’t last.
Rogers’ rough outing
Rogers maneuvered his way through a pair of jams early in his start Tuesday against the Phillies.
The Marlins’ lefty couldn’t do it a third time.
And as has been the case more often than not this season, Rogers’ outing was short-lived.
Rogers gave up four runs on five hits and a career-high six walks over just 3 2/3 innings of work. The big blow came in the fourth, when Hoskins hit a two-out, game-tying three-run home run on a 94-mph fastball that landed over the heart of the plate.
It was the latest deflating moment of 2022 for Rogers, the runner-up for the National League Rookie of the Year last season.
His ERA through 12 starts is up to 5.87 over 53 2/3 innings. That’s the fifth-highest among starting pitchers this season who have thrown at least 50 innings.
Tuesday was the third time this season that Rogers did not complete at least four innings. One of the other two also came against the Phillies, when he gave up seven earned runs in just 1 2/3 innings on April 16. Rogers has a career 7.26 ERA against the Phillies (25 earned runs allowed over 31 innings in seven starts).
Teams are feasting on his four-seam fastball, with opponents hitting .339 against the pitch this season (40 for 118) after he held opponents to a .222 batting average against in 2021 (62 for 279) on at-bats that ended with that pitch. The Hoskins home run on Tuesday was the ninth allowed by Rogers this season and eighth on a fastball after giving up just six home runs total last season.
But before the fourth-inning home run, Rogers had gotten out of a pair of bases-loaded situations while allowing just one run Tuesday.
In the first, he walked Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper before Nick Castellanos hit a single to left field. J.T. Realmuto hit into an inning-ending double to end the threat. Rogers needed 26 pitches to get through the opening frame, yet another issue he has dealt with this season. He is averaging 21.45 pitches in the first inning this season.
After working around a two-out walk in the second, Rogers once again found himself in trouble in the third inning. A Schwarber walk, Hoskins single and Harper walk loaded the bases with no outs. Rogers, remarkably, got out of the frame allowing just one run on a Realmuto RBI fielder’s choice. Castellanos struck out before Realmuto’s at-bat and Didi Gregorious hit a fly ball to Jorge Soler in left field to end the inning.
But he couldn’t work the magic again in the fourth. After retiring the first two batters, Rogers gave up a single to Matt Vierling and walked Schwarber. He fell behind in the count 3-1 to Hoskins before giving up the home run.
