Miami Marlins Game Recap: Phillies take series finale from Marlins B-squad

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The Miami Marlins entered Sunday having won nine of their last ten games and four straight, but couldn’t complete the sweep over the Philadelphia Phillies. Instead, the Marlins had to settle for the series win, as Jarred Cosart couldn’t keep up with young Phillies starter Severino Gonzalez in a 6-2 defeat.

On this Sunday getaway day, Mike Redmond gave several starters the day off, and the Marlins trotted out a very Spring Training-esque lineup. Donovan Solano got the start at second base, Reid Brignac spelled Martin Prado at third, and Jhonatan Solano played all nine innings behind the plate. That lineup scratched across just two runs and brought Miami back below .500 at 12-13.

The Marlins jumped to an early 1-0 lead in the first inning when Giancarlo Stanton scored Ichiro Suzuki on a sacrifice fly. Ichiro walked to lead off the game, and subsequently stole second and third base before Stanton stepped in to the box. Ichiro got the lead off nod with National League batting leader Dee Gordon getting the day off.

A pretty cool moment happened in the fifth inning when Jhonatan Solano, in his Marlins debut, broke a 1-1 tie by scoring younger brother, Donovan, on a sharp double to left field. It was Jhonatan’s first RBI as a Marlin and would wrap up the Marlins’ scoring on the day.

The Phillies responded quickly, plating a pair of runs in the sixth and chasing Cosart from the game. Cosart began the frame by plunking Darin Ruf, who promptly scored on a Ryan Howard triple. The next batter Grady Sizemore singled Howard home, and that was all she wrote for Cosart, whose final line was five-plus innings, five hits, three runs, one walk and six strikeouts.

Philadelphia added two more runs off Bryan Morris in the seventh, and a final insurance run off Brad Hand in the eighth. The Marlins lackluster lineup couldn’t muster anything else, and Redmond opted not to call on any of his resting starters for pinch hit opportunities. Four Phillies relievers combined to allow just one hit–a Brignac two-out single off Jonathan Papelbon in the ninth–to claim the last game of the Miami homestand.

The Phillies had lost five straight entering Sunday.

Miami ends a nine-game homestand in which it went 7-2 and looked very different from the team that lost 11 of its first 14 games. Tomorrow, the Fish pick it right back up in Washington, D.C. for the first of a three-game set against the Nationals. Yes, the same Nationals that the Marlins swept right out of Miami last week will be looking for some revenge. Tomorrow’s expected starters are David Phelps for the Marlins and Jordan Zimmermann for the Nats.

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