MIAMI (AP) — Manager Clayton McCullough finally had reason to exhale. After 12 straight losses, the Miami Marlins picked up a win.
Down by two runs heading into the bottom of the ninth inning Monday night, Miami rallied to defeat division rival Philadelphia 8-7, putting an end to the longest losing streak in franchise history. The Marlins hadn’t tasted victory since a home win over Seattle on July 9, and the triumph also prevented a fifth consecutive series sweep.
“Everybody feels good,” McCullough said. “It’s no lie everyone in the building has been grinding hard now for a couple of weeks and frustrated with things, but certainly it feels great to get a win and I think in the fashion that we did it’d be hard to ever question this group’s toughness and willingness to compete.”
Philadelphia closer Jhoan Duran entered the ninth with a 7-5 advantage, but quickly found himself in trouble after loading the bases without recording an out. Heriberto Hernández came through with a run-tying single, then scored the go-ahead run when Griffin Conine followed with a base hit to seal the victory. Conine leapt into the arms of his celebrating teammates on the field after the winning run crossed the plate.
“I’ve never been a part of anything like the last two weeks,” said Conine, who had also launched a home run in the first inning. “I think we handled it fine. It’s just like at a certain point, it’s the same way you feel when you’re 0-for-15 at the plate. You feel like you’re never going to get a hit again. And that’s not true. You know that deep down you will, but the way it feels is like — it felt like we were never going to win again.”
The Marlins had previously endured 11-game losing streaks three times in their history — twice during the 1998 season when the club lost 108 games total, and once more in June 2011. Monday’s collapse broke new ground in the wrong direction before the team finally turned things around.
Before the game, McCullough revealed he had watched Christopher Nolan’s film “The Odyssey” on a recent day off, and the ancient tale of hardship struck close to home.
“I feel a bit like Odysseus,” he said. “Like I’m away from home for 10 years. At some point, I’m going to return home. I don’t know what baseball god I infuriated but it’s where we’re at, so today is an opportunity.”
Miami wasted no time seizing that opportunity. After Bryce Harper gave Philadelphia an early 2-0 lead with a two-run home run in the first inning, the Marlins answered by stringing together five consecutive runs against ace Zack Wheeler. After surrendering the lead in the sixth, Miami came roaring back with three runs in the ninth, capped by Conine’s first career walk-off hit.
“As far as what this does, pressure’s off,” Conine said. “Now we’re on a winning streak. Now we want more of it. So it’s like forget the last two weeks and move on. I think we can learn from it, and I think that we will.”
The skid was a stunning reversal of fortune for a team that had been playing well before the All-Star break, sitting at 52-42 and just three games behind NL East-leading Atlanta, while also holding the third NL wild-card spot. The slide began during a home series against Cleveland just before the break. Aside from a 7-2 loss to San Diego on July 25, the other 11 defeats all came by three runs or fewer, including a 5-3 setback against San Diego on Sunday.
Offensively, Miami had been anemic during the streak, hitting just .208 with a .607 OPS. Monday’s game was a welcome change, with seven players recording hits and six of them collecting multiple hits.
“Everybody is going to leave here tonight feeling much different than we have over the last 12-odd games,” McCullough said. “We’ll come in tomorrow and look — we got Game 1 of the series. As rough as it’s been, we still need to try to get back to winning series. Winning the first game of a big divisional series like this is important.”
