Jose Urena, on his 29th birthday, gives up two big homers in Marlins’ loss to Phillies
Jose Urena took the mound for his 29th birthday and promptly struck out Philadelphia Phillies designated hitter Andrew McCutchen on three pitches.
The festivities quickly ended there for the Miami Marlins’ starting pitcher.
He watched four batters later as Didi Gregorious sent a slider over the heart of the plate past the right field wall for a grand slam. Two innings later, Bryce Harper took him deep for a leadoff solo home run.
Six innings after that, the Marlins walked off their home field with a 12-6 loss to the Phillies on Saturday to even the five-day, seven-game series at 2-2 through four games. The teams will play a doubleheader on Sunday, their second of the series, before closing the set on Monday.
The loss drops the Marlins to 21-21. They are now one-and-a-half games behind the Phillies (23-20) for second place in the NL East and four games behind the first-place Atlanta Braves (27-19), who beat the Washington Nationals 2-1 earlier in the day.
Urena lasted 4 1/3 innings, giving up five hits and four walks while striking out two. A sixth run charged to him scored in the fifth. J.T. Realmuto, who drew a one-out walk to start the fifth and moved to third on a Gregorious single, scored when reliever James Hoyt’s first pitch skipped past catcher Jorge Alfaro and made it to the backstop.
The Phillies tacked on six runs in the seventh and eighth against the bullpen. Adam Haseley’s one-out swinging bunt down the first-base line against Richard Bleier in the seventh scored Jean Segura from third. Haseley weaved away from Jesus Aguilar as Aguilar tried to make the tag. Marlins manager Don Mattingly came out to argue the call but the play stood.
Segura’s RBI single in the eighth scored Harper, who reached base on each of his first five plate appearances and was a triple shy of the cycle. One at-bat later, Alec Bohm’s RBI double through the left side that skipped past Jazz Chisholm’s glove scored Gregorious, who was intentionally walked. Another intentional walk to Haseley loaded the bases. Kyle Garlick drove them all home with a ground-ball double that skipped past the third-base bag and into left field.
The Marlins scored on a Brian Anderson three-run home run in the fourth, a Lewis Brinson pinch-hit RBI double in the sixth, a Corey Dickerson single that, coupled with a Realmuto scoring error, scored Garrett Cooper from second base in the seventh, and an Aguilar solo home run in the eighth. Aguilar had three hits, including a pair of two-out hits that started the first two rallies.
▪ Shortstop Miguel Rojas tripped making his way to the field to start the game and appeared to injure his right hand. He took a few extra ground balls before the game began and played through the first six-and-a-half innings.
▪ Johan Quezada made his MLB debut by pitching the ninth inning for the Marlins, who set a franchise record with 17 players making their big-league debuts this season. The club’s previous record was 16, set in 2010.
