MIA 2, PHI 4: Phillies walk away with series opener against Marlins pitching staff

One day in advance of the MLB trade deadline, the Marlins lineup picked up an important addition. Center fielder Jazz Chisholm Jr was reinstated from the IL and hit cleanup in his first game back. He joined the team before a crucial series versus the Phillies, who trailed the Marlins by half a game in the standings entering play on Monday.  

But before Chisholm could even step to the plate, the Marlins had already put up two runs. Luis Arraez started the first inning with a single to right and Soler followed him by blasting his 25^th home run of the year into the left field bleachers.  

In Chisholm's first at-bat since July 2, he lined a ground-rule double over the wall in right field.

On the mound for the Marlins was Edward Cabrera and it was a short start for him. Cabrera struggled finding the strike zone with all his pitches and ended the day with a 48% strike rate. His lack of control would lead to him surrendering six walks in three innings pitched. After allowing the first two men to reach base in the top of the fourth, manager Skip Schumaker went to his bullpen earlier than he would have liked in this one.  

Manager Skip Schumaker on Cabrera's performance: "It's frustrating because Edward Cabrera got such good stuff, probably the best stuff on the staff."

Steven Okert would come in to try and clean up, but after a fantastic sacrifice bunt from Jake Cave and a double from Johan Rojas, the Phillies would tie the game at 2-2.  

Both the runs were charged to Cabrera, whose final line would be 3 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 6 BB, 3 K.  

Cabrera was not the only one to surrender walks as the Marlins pitching staff combined to walk ten batters. With all those baserunners, it's really hard to prevent runs.

Schumaker said, "We've been preaching since spring training, throw strikes and we'll see what happens, and 10 walks, it's tough to win that way."

Tanner Scott came in to pitch the seventh inning for the Marlins and after walking the first batter, Alec Bohm crushed a double off the right field wall that put runners on second and third. After intentionally walking J.T Realmuto, Bryson Scott hit a sacrifice fly to put the Phillies ahead 3-2.  

Taijuan Walker was on the mound for the Phillies, and he was fantastic. The first inning was his only blemish. Other than that, he saw no real trouble for the rest of the game. He was taken out in the seventh inning and his final line was 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K.  

The Phillies would tack on another run in the eighth after Bohm won a ten-pitch battle with Huascar Brazoban that ended in a two-out RBI single.  

The Phillies bullpen picked up right where Walker left off and shut down the Marlins. In the ninth inning, Craig Kimbrel sat the Marlins down 1-2-3 to secure his 18^th save of the season.  

Other Notes

• Luis Arraez notched his 16th three-hit game of the year, which leads MLB
• Slumping A.J. Puk worked a clean top of the sixth, which was the earliest inning he has pitched in all season

Looking Ahead

The Marlins look to bounce back Tuesday with Sandy Alcantara on the mound. He will face off against Ranger Suárez for the Phillies. First pitch is set for 6:40.