MIAMI — It wasn’t a fatal blow, but the Phillies landed a damaging dagger to the heart of the Miami Marlins and their fading playoff hopes with a 3-2 win on Thursday night at Marlins Park.
Ben Lively (2-5) earned the win by allowing just two runs in six innings. He also drove in two runs in an all-around performance. (OK, he made a throwing error, but still …)
Hector Neris earned his 17th save the very hard way, loading the bases before striking out J.T. Realmuto, who watched a 2-2 fastball for strike three.
With the win, the Phillies (50-83) became the last team in the majors to reach 50 victories. The Marlins (66-67) fell six games behind the Colorado Rockies in the battle for the final wild-card berth in the National League.
• The Marlins appeared to had tied the score in the eighth inning on a swinging bunt by Tomas Telis. Reliever Luis Garcia’s throw to first bounced into right field and allowed Derek Dietrich to score from first. However, Telis ran out of the baseline at first and was called out, crushing the rally. The Phillies dodged the proverbial bullet.
• Left-hander Adam Morgan turned in an impressive relief outing, striking out the side in the seventh. Morgan got all three batters swinging. And these weren’t just any three batters. They were Giancarlo Stanton, who leads the majors in homers; Christian Yelich, a Silver Slugger winner last year who has 16 homers this season; and Marcell Ozuna, a 2017 All-Star who has 31 homers and 103 RBIs (see story).
MLB
• The power versus power matchup — Stanton against Phillies rookie Rhys Hoskins — never materialized. Stanton went 0 for 5 with a fly out, two strikeouts and two pop outs. He is 1 for 15 this week.
Hoskins, who has 11 homers in 22 games, didn’t go deep, but he went 1 for 3 with a single and a walk. Hoskins became the first Phillies rookie to produce a 13-game hit streak in the first month of his major-league career since Hall of Famer Chuck Klein accomplished the feat in 1928.
• The Phillies were sloppy on defense, making three errors. Shortstop Freddy Galvis, who could be forced to give up his spot upon the imminent arrival of minor-league standout J.P. Crawford, made one of the miscues. Galvis charged in on a slow roller but couldn’t make the grab.
The other two errors happened on the same play as a Dee Gordon bunt turned into — in net effect — a triple because of throwing errors by Lively and second baseman Cesar Hernandez.
• Lively, who entered Friday 3 for 14 with one homer and two RBIs as a competent (for a pitcher) big-league hitter, doubled his RBI count with a two-run single in the fourth. He raised his batting average to .235.
• Left-swinging Phillies rightfielder Nick Williams has had fairly even splits against right-handers and left-handers this year. He entered Thursday batting .281 with an .844 OPS against right-handers and .280 with a .785 OPS against left-handers.
Having even splits is the key to playing every day, especially for a rookie such as Williams, who is still trying to prove himself. But in the seventh inning, with a runner on third and one out, Williams hit a grounder to third base, failing to get the run in against rookie lefty reliever Jarlin Garcia.