MIAMI — The Marlins’ shrinking margin for error collapsed in the 11th inning Tuesday when Boston’s Jarren Duran crushed a grand slam off reliever Cade Gibson, capping a gut-punch extra-inning loss that laid bare Miami’s baserunning and clutch-hitting failures.
Through the first two games of the series, Miami stranded 25 runners and went 3-for-32 with runners in scoring position. The Marlins entered the game tied with the Nationals for the most outs on the bases — 54 — in the majors this season, then added two more against the Red Sox.
“You play these close games like this, and [there are] moments within games that could potentially swing it another way,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “And when you’re not able to get it done, and you get to this juncture of the season, and you have some really hard-fought, intense games, and you come up short, it does sting.”
Right-hander Tyler Phillips gave Miami every chance, striking out a career-high-tying seven batters over 4 2/3 innings of one-run ball. Without closer Pete Fairbanks, who landed on the 15-day injured list Tuesday afternoon, six relievers combined to allow just two runs — one earned — before the 11th.
The game turned on a sequence of costly miscues. In the fifth, Xavier Edwards doubled to lead off but was thrown out trying to advance to third on Leo Jiménez’s grounder. Backup catcher Brian Navarreto delivered a game-tying sacrifice fly to make it 1-1. In the seventh, with the score knotted at 2, pinch-hitter Jakob Marsee singled and was bunted over by Navarreto, but Marsee was gunned down at the plate trying to score on Otto Lopez’s grounder when catcher Connor Wong easily applied the tag.
“You make some outs there that do hurt you, but I think we’ll just continue as a group — we know we need to continue to find ways not only now this year but moving forward to make that impactful for us,” McCullough said.
In the 10th, a passed ball on right-hander Cavin Faucher’s 92.6 mph cutter to Ceddanne Rafaela struck home-plate umpire David Rackley on the helmet and trickled away to score a run. “It appeared maybe there was some type of a little bit of a crossup just with as good as Navi generally is back there,” McCullough said.
Gibson, who entered in the 11th, watched Boston load the bases on Willson Contreras’ single that knocked down first baseman Jiménez and pinch-hitter Jahmai Jones’ walk. After a forceout, Duran crushed a sweeper for a grand slam — a pitch Gibson had not surrendered a homer on all season.
“It’s tough because when games are that close against a good team, you’ve got to find a way to win the ballgame, because we’re a good team, too,” Gibson said. “Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes it rains.”
Phillips urged his teammates to move on quickly. “The best thing you can do is just decompress tonight, go over it in your own head, and hopefully don’t dwell on it for too long from a team perspective,” Phillips said. “And then tomorrow, got another game, got to try to salvage.”
Miami returns to loanDepot park Wednesday for the series finale against Boston, looking to avoid a sweep with time running short on the season.