MIA 5, PHI 3: Marlins get back on track against Philly

Marlins pitchers held the Phillies scoreless over the final seven innings, with A.J. Puk redeeming himself from the night before by securing the save.

The Miami Marlins beat the Philadelphia Phillies 5-3 Saturday to stop a short two-game skid and set themselves up for a rubber match on Sunday.

Jorge Soler had his fingerprints all over the victory, starting the scoring for Miami with a solo home run to left field in the first inning to tie the game at 1-1 and driving home Dane Myers on a sacrifice fly to center field in the fourth inning to give the Marlins the 4-3 lead—a lead they would not give up for the rest of the game.

Myers himself went 2-for-4, the third multi-hit of his five-game career. One of those hits was a two-RBI single in the first inning to give Miami a temporary 3-1 lead.

Luis Arraez, who was initially given a day off, hit a pinch-hit RBI single in the seventh inning to give the Marlins an insurance run.

A 1-2-3 eighth inning from Tanner Scott gave way to A.J. Puk getting the ninth inning. Puk had blown saves in his last two outings, most recently in Friday night’s 4-3 loss to the Phillies.

Aside from a hard-hit ball off Puk’s wrist that resulted in a single for Alex Bohm, Puk breezed through the ninth and picked up the save.

“Blowing a couple of saves in a row, I mean there's really good closers—All-Star closers right now that made the All-Star team—that have blown two saves in a row,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “Those are going to happen. I think it shows the resiliency of our team…All those guys wanted Puk out there again, guarantee it. They weren't thinking in the back of their mind like, ‘Oh man, here we go.’ I mean, losers say, ‘Here we go again.’ Winning teams say, ‘We want that guy out there again.’"

Braxton Garrett was tagged with a lot of hard contact, particularly in the early innings, having allowed all three of his runs in the first two innings.

“Kind of had to switch up the game plan there mid-game,” Garrett said. “Not even necessarily because of their approach but because of how I was throwing certain pitches…My slider I feel just hasn't been super sharp, and the cutter today just didn't stay up in the zone enough for me, so it just kind of went into that happy zone middle-middle for them.”

Photo courtesy of Miami Marlins