PHILADELPHIA — Jesús Aguilar homered, drove in four runs and hit a go-ahead double in the ninth inning to lead the Miami Marlins to a wild 11-9 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday night.
Jazz Chisholm Jr., Avisaíl Garcia and Jacob Stallings also went deep for Miami, which has won six of eight.
“That was pretty wild, kind of a whirlwind,” Stallings said. “Thinking you’re going to win for sure, then probably going to lose. We just did a great job of battling back. We did just enough.”
Rhys Hoskins hit two homers, had four hits and drove in six runs for the Phillies, who lost for the second time in their last 12 games. This one was gut-wrenching for Philadelphia, which was trying to match its season best by going two games over .500.
“It’s disappointing,” Phillies interim manager Rob Thomson said. “The offense really battled to take the lead. And soon after that we gave it back.”
After Hoskins broke an 8-all tie with his second homer of the game, a solo shot in the eighth, the Marlins capitalized against closer Corey Knebel (2-5) and Philadelphia’s shaky defense in the ninth.
Knebel, pitching for the first time since Friday due to right shoulder stiffness, induced a grounder to start the frame, but third baseman Alec Bohm’s throwing error allowed Miguel Rojas to reach. Bohm’s team-leading ninth error proved costly. Knebel walked the next two batters on just nine pitches to load the bases.
Garrett Cooper’s infield single tied the game at 9 and ended the night for Knebel, who exited to boos from those remaining among the 28,073 in attendance after blowing his fourth save in 15 chances.
“He wasn’t very sharp tonight for sure,” said Thomson, who added that he’ll reevaluate Knebel’s role as the closer.
Knebel threw 12 balls among his 16 pitches.
“I felt good, just didn’t throw strikes,” Knebel said.
Andrew Bellatti came on and induced a popup for the first out and looked like he was going to get another when Aguilar fouled a 1-0 pitch behind the plate. But catcher J.T. Realmuto dropped the ball for his seventh error and, two pitches later, Aguilar plated two runs with his hit to right field to give the Marlins a two-run lead.
All three Miami runs in the inning were unearned.
“That ended up being huge,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said of Realmuto’s error. “They’ve had a little trouble, I guess, finishing games and things like that. It seemed like it kind of unraveled a little bit and our guys stayed patient in the zone and got what we wanted.”
Tanner Scott pitched a scoreless ninth for his fifth save in as many opportunities.
Steven Okert (3-0) got the victory despite giving up the go-ahead homer to Hoskins in the eighth.
After the Marlins hit a pair of two-out homers to jump in front 4-0 in the first, Philadelphia scored the next eight runs and looked in control after Hoskins’ two-run double and Bohm’s two-run single in the fifth made it 8-4.
With the Phillies still ahead by four runs, Thomson didn’t send starter Zach Eflin back out for the seventh even though the right-hander had thrown just 80 pitches and retired his last 13 batters because Eflin was experiencing right knee soreness. The Marlins got to the reliever duo of Jeurys Familia and Seranthony Dominguez with four runs in the seventh on two-strike homers by Stallings off Familia, a three-run shot, and Chisholm’s solo shot against Dominguez to tie it at 8.
“It was definitely a tale of like three different games, it felt like,” Mattingly said.
