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The Miami Marlins looked poise to at least salvage a game against the Philadelphia Phillies and end their six-game losing skid, but the Fish were unable to pull out the final run needed to break a late-game 3-3 tie. Meanwhile, Philadelphia pulled out that run in dramatic fashion, with an eighth inning home run by Chase Utley off of Mike Dunn giving the Phillies the crucial lead that they would not surrender.
Miami started off decently, as the team scored runs in the first and second inning off of starter Kyle Kendrick. Miami got thing started with a two-out Casey McGehee single that brought home Christian Yelich to stake a 1-0 lead. In the second, Yelich returned the RBI favor by singling and bringing home Jeff Mathis with one away. The Fish had a shot for a little more with Adeiny Hechavarria at the plate, but a strikeout ended the rally and the Marlins stranded two that inning.
The Phillies countered with a homer by Ryan Howard off of Henderson Alvarez, but Alvarez had started off shaky and up-and-down from the beginning. He walked two batters and committed a throwing error to load the bases in the first inning before working himself out of the jam. In the second inning, the Fish were lucky to escape without a run scored after Tony Gwynn Jr. singled with catcher Wil Nieves at second base; the slow-footed Nieves was held and Alvarez got the final out.
After Garrett Jones hit his first Marlins home run, Nieves struck back against Alvarez with a two-out double that plated two runners. The game was tied and remained so after both starters left the game. Kendrick recovered from the early struggles and ended up striking out seven batters in six innings, continuing his relatively strong performance against Miami.
The turning point came in the eighth inning against Dunn. He had dispatched of Gwynn and Jimmy Rollins before facing Utley. He took a pitch out of the zone before turning on Dunn's second offering and depositing it into right field, putting the Phillies ahead and allowing a simple 1-2-3 inning for Jonathan Papelbon to finish the game.
The Marlins have lost seven straight games. They start a three-game set at home with the Washington Nationals.
Source: FanGraphs
Attendance: 34,272
Hero of the Game: Garrett Jones (0.102 WPA)
Goat of the Game: Mike Dunn (-0.235 WPA)
Play of the Game: Chase Utley homered to right field in the eighth inning. (-0.372 WPA)