Clayton McCullough got a lot of the big calls right Monday night, and the Marlins walked out of Colorado with a 10-7 comeback win to show for it.
The biggest swing came in the fifth inning. Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer had just gone from left-handed starter Sean Sullivan to righty Victor Vodnik, and McCullough answered by lifting Leo Jimenez - who already had an RBI double in his first at-bat - and sending Griffin Conine up to pinch-hit. Conine made the move look brilliant almost immediately, jumping on a changeup on the second pitch and launching it 433 feet into the third deck in right field for a go-ahead three-run blast and a 6-5 Miami lead.
"Looking at today with their only lefty, he had thrown back-to-back days, potentially he could have come in, but that would have Griff and Owen (Caissie) and even Graham (Pauley) ready to come pinch-hit in those spots," McCullough said. "The first shot there with some guys on, I felt like it was a moment, and then Griff was gonna be the first bat off the bench."
For Conine, who has spent most of the season recovering from a left hamstring tear, the homer was a milestone. He has appeared in seven games since coming off the injured list, and this was his first career pinch-hit home run. It was also the third pinch-hit homer by a Marlin this season, and the longest home run of Conine’s career.
"Anytime you are going into the game in a big spot, you just get as much as you can on the guy before you go up there and try to get a good pitch," Conine told the Marlins Radio Network postgame. "He threw me two changeups in a row and that definitely helped out the timing and I didn't miss the second one."
McCullough found another key matchup later, this time with Owen Caissie. He pinch-hit Caissie for Esteury Ruiz in the seventh, and the move paid off again.
Caissie singled off Rockies reliever Antonio Senzatela on the second pitch of the at-bat, then scored on Javier Sanoja’s RBI triple. Caissie finished 2-for-2 and pushed his June OPS to .827.
Sandy Alcantara’s night was less clean, but it still ended with another win attached to his line. In his final start of June, he worked 5 2/3 innings and allowed five runs on seven hits, with five walks and three strikeouts.
McCullough came out to speak with him in the top of the sixth, and after a brief exchange Alcantara was lifted. Michael Petersen handled the inning and kept Alcantara in position for what became his sixth win.
"What makes Mike so special for us is that he is very good versus left and he's good versus right," McCullough said. "Having that neutrality, we liked him versus (Jake) McCarthy either way, and that his ability to come into any spot versus any sided hitter is a big deal."
The month still belonged to Alcantara in a bigger-picture sense. He became the third pitcher in Marlins franchise history to go 6-0 in a month, joining José Fernández, who did it in May 2016, and Chris Hammond, who did it in June 1993. Alcantara finished June with a 3.35 ERA over 40 1/3 innings, completed seven innings or more in three straight starts, and now has the most strikeouts in franchise history.
Miami’s win also locked in a piece of team history. The Marlins matched a franchise record with 19 wins in June, first set by the 2023 club, and they joined Atlanta, which went 19-9 in April, and Milwaukee, which went 19-7 in May, as the only teams in the majors this season to reach 19 wins in a calendar month.
"This has been a really big month for Sandy," McCullough said. "During this run, he has really been on the attack.
Coming into this game, if he's not leading the league in innings, he's right there. He has efficiently done his work, and he's continued to fill it up.
I think that we've seen a guy who's certainly been there, done that, and with the situation we've been in recently, where we've patched things together on some days with our pitching, that what Sandy does on the days he gets the ball, we generally count on him going deep and giving us a chance."
The Marlins are now 45-40 and sitting in a virtual tie with the St. Louis Cardinals for the third NL Wild Card spot, with St. Louis holding the slightest edge in win percentage, .531 to .529.
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