The Marlins had a night full of chances, and almost every one of them slipped away.
Miami’s 7-3 loss to the Red Sox in 11 innings on Tuesday at loanDepot park was the kind of game that hangs around long after the final out. The Marlins dropped to 67-66 and stayed four games behind San Diego for the final National League Wild Card spot, with 29 games left. Manager Clayton McCullough didn’t hide what that kind of loss feels like.
“You play these close games like this, and [there are] moments within games that could potentially swing it another way,” McCullough said. “And when you're not able to get it done, and you get to this juncture of the season, and you have some really hard-fought, intense games, and you come up short, it does sting.”
The frustration started early and never really let up. Through the first two games of the series, Miami stranded 25 runners and went 3-for-32 with runners in scoring position.
The Marlins also kept running into trouble on the bases. They entered the game tied with the Nationals for the most outs on the bases this season at 54, then added two more against Boston.
Even when Miami finally broke through against lefty Payton Tolle, there was more left on the table. The Marlins were held hitless through four innings before Xavier Edwards opened the fifth with a double.
He tried to stretch it into a triple on Leo Jiménez’s grounder up the middle and got thrown out. Griffin Conine followed with a single, Esteury Ruiz walked to load the bases, and Brian Navarreto delivered a game-tying sacrifice fly to center to make it 1-1.
The sixth inning brought another chance, and Boston answered right back. Tyler Phillips was sharp enough to keep Miami in it, striking out a career-high-tying seven over 4 2/3 innings of one-run ball. With Pete Fairbanks landing on the 15-day injured list Tuesday afternoon, six Marlins relievers had to cover the rest, and they combined to give up just two runs, one earned.
Phillips said the way forward is pretty simple after a night like this.
“The best thing you can do is just decompress tonight, go over it in your own head, and hopefully don't dwell on it for too long from a team perspective,” Phillips said. “And then tomorrow, got another game, got to try to salvage.”
The seventh inning became another gut punch. With the game tied at 2, pinch-hitter Jakob Marsee singled to start the frame and Navarreto advanced him with a sacrifice bunt.
Then Otto Lopez rolled a grounder up the middle, and Marsee tried to score on the throw to first. Willson Contreras fired home, and Connor Wong applied the tag to get him easily.
McCullough pointed to the aggressiveness, even if the result hurt.
“You make some outs there that do hurt you, but I think we'll just continue as a group - we know we need to continue to find ways not only now this year but moving forward to make that impactful for us,” McCullough said. “Certainly we always are talking about any of these plays that come up, whether they work out or they don't, how we can just continue as a group to become the best in baseball at aggressiveness.”
Navarreto had already done a little bit of everything by then, with the sacrifice fly, the sacrifice bunt and the caught stealing. But the game still found another way to turn on Miami.
In a 2-2 ballgame, right-hander Cavin Faucher threw a 92.6 mph cutter to Ceddanne Rafaela, and Navarreto seemed to be looking for something else. The pitch got past him, struck home-plate umpire David Rackley on the helmet and rolled away, allowing a run to score.
“It appeared maybe there was some type of a little bit of a crossup just with as good as Navi generally is back there,” McCullough said. “Maybe [he] was anticipating something else, and then it just took off on him.”
By the 11th, Boston had finally broken the game open. Lefty Cade Gibson ran into a rough stretch after Boston loaded the bases on Contreras’ single that knocked down first baseman Jiménez and Jahmai Jones’ walk.
After a forceout, Jarren Duran turned on a sweeper and launched a grand slam. Gibson said the pitch had not left the yard on him all season.
“It’s tough because when games are that close against a good team, you’ve got to find a way to win the ballgame, because we're a good team, too,” Gibson said. “We've got to find a way to win those.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes it rains. It's tough.
Don't get me wrong; I'm upset, but just go back to the drawing board and figure it out. They're a good team.
If you give them enough chances, they're good enough to where they showed it the past couple games. It's tough, man.
I really love this team, and I think we could do something special. It just hasn't gone our way the past couple.”
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