MIAMI – Emmanuel Rivera hit a game-winning pinch-hit single in the 10th inning and the Miami Marlins beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-6 Sunday.
Rivera’s hard grounder deflected off the glove of Phillies reliever Gregory Soto (0-1) and into right field, scoring automatic runner Nick Fortes from second.
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“You have to be ready from the first inning,” Rivera said. “So many things can happen in a game - an injury or come in late. You never know what the situation could be so you have to be prepared.”
Rivera missed a sign to bunt and advance base runners Fortes and Josh Bell and whiffed on Soto’s 1-0 pitch. He then had a second strike called before his first career walk-off RBI.
“Once I got to two strikes, my thought process was to put the ball in play,” Rivera said.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. doubled and tripled while Bell homered for the Marlins, who snapped a five-game losing skid and began Sunday with a major league-worst 10-31 record.
The Phillies, who began Sunday with a major league-best 28-12 record, lost for only the third time in their past 16.
Anthony Bender (1-2) pitched a scoreless top of the 10th around two walks.
Down 6-3, Philadelphia tied it on Edmundo Sosa’s two-run triple and Brandon Marsh’s sacrifice fly against Miami reliever Andrew Nardi in the sixth.
Phillies starter Zack Wheeler gave up a season-high six runs and was lifted after four innings. Wheeler allowed six hits, walked three and struck out two.
“They seemed to be more aggressive today,” Wheeler said. “I didn’t command the ball like I wanted to and they got me. I felt great. I wasn’t out of whack.”
Braxton Garrett went 5 1/3 innings, allowing five runs in his season debut for Miami. The left-hander, who spent the first six weeks of the season on the injured list, allowed five hits and struck out eight. It was Garrett’s first outing since allowing two runs over three innings in Miami’s NL wild-card series loss against the Phillies in October.
Bell’s three-run homer in the third put Miami ahead 4-3. The Marlins then padded their lead in the fourth, when Christian Bethancourt’s sacrifice squeeze bunt scored Vidal Brujan from third and Chisholm followed with an RBI triple.
“There were good at-bats up and down,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “We played small ball really well today. That’s kind of what we’re going to need to do to score runs. We’re not going to slug the other team to death.”
The Phillies struck quickly against Garrett with Nick Castellanos’ three-run homer in the first. Castellanos drilled the first pitch from Garrett over the wall in left-center for his fourth homer of the season and second of the series.
“I was happy how I responded after the first inning,” Garrett said. “Those innings that I put up zeroes I kept getting better and better. Kind of hit a wall in the sixth inning, but we’ll try to get over that next one.”
The Marlins narrowed the gap on Jesús Sánchez’s RBI double in the second. Sánchez used a different bat for the shot that bounced off the warning track in center. Earlier in his plate appearance, Sánchez whiffed at a fastball from Wheeler and the bat cleared the netting, landing 10 rows above the Phillies’ first base dugout.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Phillies: DH-OF Kyle Schwarber (back soreness) sat out his second consecutive game. ... Catcher J.T. Realmuto had the day off.
Marlins: Transferred JT Chargois (neck spasms) to the 60-day injured list. ... George Soriano was optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville.
UP NEXT
Phillies: Cristopher Sánchez (2-3, 3.22 ERA) will start the opener of a two-game road set against the New York Mets on Monday. Sean Manaea (2-1, 3.31 ERA) will start for the Mets.
Marlins: Sixto Sánchez (0-1, 7.50) will start the opener of a three-game series in Detroit on Monday. The Tigers will go with Matt Manning (0-1, 4.24).