Phillies lose to the Marlins, but playoff bye magic number down to one

J.T. Realmuto leapt out of his crouch, flexing the fingers on his right hand.

While he was catching Jhoan Duran in the ninth, a foul tip from Miami Marlins designated hitter Heriberto Hernández glanced off Realmuto’s glove and hit the index finger on his throwing hand. After a brief conference with Phillies trainer Joe Rauch and manager Rob Thomson, though, Realmuto stayed in the game.

Two pitches later, Hernández crushed an 0-2 middle-middle fastball for a solo home run that tied the game at 3. And when Realmuto went back to the dugout to get ready to lead off the bottom of the ninth, he found he couldn’t grip a bat.

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Rafael Marchán entered the game as a pinch-hitter instead. The Phillies’ eventual 6-5 loss to Miami was interrupted by a one-hour, nine-minute rain delay after Marchán’s leadoff single. But the delay gave enough time for Realmuto’s X-rays to come back negative on his right index finger contusion, as the Phillies avoided disaster with their starting catcher.

“He’s one of the best catchers in the game,” said Cristopher Sánchez, who pitched seven scoreless innings Tuesday before the Marlins’ comeback. “We’re basically nothing without him. So he’s just a key player and a key piece for all of us.”

Realmuto was unavailable postgame. Thomson said the Phillies will check him out Wednesday.

After the Diamondbacks walked off the Los Angeles Dodgers in Arizona in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the Phillies’ magic number for the first-round bye shrunk to one. A Phillies win on Wednesday or another Dodgers loss would secure it.

The Phillies offense had jumped out to an early 3-0 lead a homer from Kyle Schwarber — his 54th of the season — in the first and a two-run shot from Otto Kemp in the second. It seemed like it would be enough as Sánchez limited the Marlins to three hits.

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His second-inning strikeout of Griffin Conine marked his 200th of the season, as Sánchez joined fellow lefty Jesús Luzardo as the second Phillies pitcher to reach the milestone this year.

“It’s something super important for me,” Sánchez said of reaching 200 strikeouts. “But it doesn’t stop. It doesn’t stop here. So we’ll just keep going.”

Once Sánchez was lifted, however, the Marlins got right back into it. Conine spoiled the shutout in the eighth inning with a solo home run off reliever David Robertson. Otto Lopez then singled, before pinch-hitting Liam Hicks deposited a base hit into center field.

Harrison Bader’s throw to Weston Wilson at second base deflected into no-man’s land, allowing Lopez to score. Tanner Banks came in and ended the inning with a strikeout.

That wasn’t the only sloppy play of the night, as the Phillies ran into some extra outs on the bases. In the fourth inning, Wilson was thrown out at second trying to stretch a single to a double. Bader was caught stealing second in the eighth.

“There’s a little bit of sloppiness that we need to clean up, and it’s been the last couple of days, so we need to clean that up, and clean it up quick,” Thomson said.

Matt Strahm had warmed up before the rain delay began, and Thomson said he did not want to go back to him after he had cooled down. Orion Kerkering, who has allowed an earned run in each of his three previous outings, was tabbed for the 10th, and allowed two runs.

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“Not a whole lot of swing-and-miss right now,” Thomson said. “So, execution is basically what it comes down to. The stuff’s good. It’s 98-99 [mph]. Probably execution of the slider is really where it’s at.”

Down to their final out in the 10th, the Phillies clawed back. The Marlins intentionally walked Schwarber to face Alec Bohm, even though the decision put the tying run at first. Bohm immediately responded with an RBI single to cut Miami’s lead to 5-4.

“I thought the energy level was really good today, and they fought back,” Thomson said.

Nick Castellanos entered the game as a pinch-hitter and laced a single to left that tied the game at 5. But another run scored on Lou Trivino in the 11th, on Xavier Edwards’ sacrifice fly, to give the Marlins a 6-5 lead. Trivino was hit in the back by a comebacker from Hernández, but remained in the game.

The Phillies had the tying run 90 feet from home plate in the 11th, but consecutive groundouts from Wilson and Bryson Stott stranded him there and ended the game.

Marlins outfielder Dane Myers suffered a knee laceration while fielding a double from Max Kepler at the right field wall in the second. He was carted off the field and replaced by Javier Sanoja.