MIA 3, PHI 2: Kings of Clutch

It’s okay if you weren’t expecting a late-inning, go-ahead home run from Jacob Stallings on Friday night. He didn’t look like he saw it coming, either.

Stallings was in a heated sprint around first base as his long fly ball sailed towards left field in the seventh inning. It wasn’t until he was halfway to second base that the ball finally landed in the seats to break a 2-2 tie, and Stallings could slow to a leisurely jog, crack a smile, and admire his third home run of the year.

The Marlins catcher doesn’t get a lot of chances to wear the celebratory straw home run hat, but this was perhaps his most important home run of the year.

Needing a win to keep pace with the final NL Wild Card holder, the Arizona Diamondbacks, Miami found themselves in another low-scoring game in which they couldn’t buy a run against a starting pitcher. The Marlins were shut out by Phillies lefty Cristopher Sánchez over the first five innings.

It wasn’t until the sixth inning when Jesús Sánchez, pinch-hitting for Garrett Hampson, hit a two-run home run to tie the game at 2-2, setting up Stallings’ go-ahead homer in the following inning. Sánchez is hitting .350 with a 1.085 OPS in his career as a pinch-hitter.

While clutch when it mattered, the offense was mostly anemic outside of those two at-bats. The Marlins racked up seven hits and only got three runners into scoring position.

Marlins starting pitcher Eury Pérez gave up two runs over five innings—a solo home run to Trea Turner in the first inning and an RBI single to Bryce Harper in the third. Perez walked three and struck out four.

With the game still tied at 2-2 in the sixth, David Robertson tossed a scoreless frame.

Steven Okert then recorded two outs in the seventh but also hit a batter and allowed a single. With two outs and two runners on, Andrew Nardi came in relief, allowed a walk to Bryce Harper to load the bases, and induced a ground ball out to Nick Castellanos to escape the inning. He has stranded a league leading 88% (32/36) of his inherited runners this year.

After Nardi went 1-2-3 in the eighth, Marlins closer Tanner Scott went 1-2-3 as well to close the game. Scott has 14 consecutive appearances without allowing an earned run dating back to July 31.

A Marlins victory in either of the two remaining games this weekend would clinch the season series against the Phillies. That would also serve as a Wild Card race tiebreaker between them (if necessary).

Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images