MIAMI — The Miami Marlins returned from their 10-game, three-city road trip with one prevailing, deeply unsatisfying takeaway.
“It could have been better,” manager Don Mattingly said. “It could have been worse.”
They played two division rivals and two of the best teams in MLB, won four and lost six. They sat around the edges of the MLB postseason picture when they went on the road and still sat there when they returned home Tuesday to begin a six-game homestand with three against the Colorado Rockies.
With less than a month until the 2022 MLB All-Star Game and only a few weeks more until the trade deadline, the Marlins need to start making a move soon if they’re going to seriously challenge for the 2022 MLB postseason. Their 9-8 win, then, was a much-needed victory, especially considering the sort of comeback it took and the tug-of-war they battled through.
Miami trailed 4-0 in the middle of the fourth inning and had just one hit through three innings against Rockies starting pitcher Ryan Feltner, and then, in the span of just four pitches, the Marlins turned a 4-0 deficit into a 4-4 tie. Later, they let an 8-5 lead of their own slip away and finally pulled out a win when backup catcher Nick Fortes led off the bottom of the eighth with a double and scored on another double by slugger Garrett Cooper.
Miami has now scored at least five runs in 11 of 20 games this month, averaging 5.65 runs per game.
It started with back-to-back home runs from outfielders Avisail Garcia and Jesus Sanchez, whose homers four pitches apart in the bottom of the fourth inning triggered a five-run frame to give Miami a 5-4 lead in front of 9,012 at loanDepot park.
The Marlins never trailed again, even though the Rockies rallied to tie the game 5-5 in the top of the fifth and 8-8 in the top of the sixth.
First, a three-run fifth inning gave Miami some of the cushion it needed and, again, Sanchez was in the middle of the rally, driving in a run with a one-out single, then scoring after shortstop Miguel Rojas singled and got caught in a rundown to buy Sanchez time to score after a throwing error.
Sanchez, 24, spent the entire weekend on the injured list for reasons related to COVID-19 and missed the entirety of the Marlins’ frustrating four-game set against the New York Mets because of it. Those four games — with three losses and the Mets outscoring Miami, 22-12 — brought an ugly ending to a sometimes-encouraging road trip and pushed the Marlins eight games out of the second wild-card spot in the National League.
With Sanchez back and a chance to play non-contending opponent in Miami, the Marlins looked something more like the best version of themselves, even with fill-in starting pitcher Daniel Castano on the mound, taking away their greatest strength by giving up four runs in 3 1/3 innings.
At the center of Miami’s playoff hopes are crafty starting pitchers Sandy Alcantara and Pablo Lopez, who have combined for 2.21 ERA in 150 innings so far this year. Secondary, however, has been its improved offense, which is better than league average — in terms of runs per game — for the first time since 2017.
Part of their success has to do with the emergence of star middle infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr., who’s currently the National League’s leading vote-getter at second base for the 2022 MLB All-Star Game. More of it has to do with the lineup depth the Marlins have built. After all, Chisholm wasn’t even in the lineup Tuesday, as Miami loaded up on right-handed hitters to face Feltner.
In the top of the eighth, the Marlins’ depth came through, with Fortes, the No. 9 hitter, getting himself into scoring position on the fourth pitch of the inning, and coming around to score after a flyout by speedy utility man Jon Berti and a game-winning hit by Cooper, who wasn’t even guaranteed to be an everyday starter at the beginning of the year and now leads Miami in on-base-plus-slugging percentage.
