Thursday, October 1, 2026
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Against a team amid a 12-game losing streak, the Phillies played a game full of bad fundamentals and rough pitching from two of their best pitchers, leading to an 8-7 walk-off loss to the Marlins.
Trea Turner and J.T. Realmuto each recorded errors while Zack Wheeler and Jhoan Duran allowed all eight of the Marlins’ runs on the night.
The Phillies’ record since the All-Star Break has now deteriorated to 3-7 as they sit 6.0 games behind the Atlanta Braves for the National League East.
Bryce Harper slung his 22nd home run of the season to give the Phillies an early lead in the top of the first. Following a one-out walk from Kyle Schwarber, Harper connected on a 1-1 sinker from Tyler Phillips, driving it 419 feet into center field.
Since being the “legend pick” at the All-Star Game at home two weeks ago, Harper has struggled to get things going at the plate, entering Monday with a .607 OPS and one home run.
Defensive woes continued to plague the Phillies. After Otto Lopez reached base on a leadoff single in the bottom of the first, the speedy infielder attempted to steal second base with one out. J.T. Realmuto’s throw took a hard bounce going off Bryson Stott’s glove. As Lopez took advantage of the errant throw, Trea Turner caught up with the ball and attempted to throw Lopez out at third. Turner’s throw came up short, bouncing away from Alec Bohm as Lopez trotted in to score when he simply tried to steal second base.
Lopez, who beat the throw from Realmuto, was awarded the stolen base by the official scorer as throwing errors were given to both Realmuto and Turner on the play.
Realmuto’s error was his sixth on the year. The veteran catcher remains one of the top defensive catchers in the league, but has already matched his error total from 2025 in 54 fewer games.
Turner, meanwhile, continues to have the worst year defensively of his career. Leading the league with 19 errors on the year, Turner is only four errors away from his career-high 23 errors in 2023, which also led Major League Baseball that year.
While an error from Realmuto happens on occasion, Turner has become a detriment to the Phillies at shortstop. Poor defense can often be excused by a team in exchange for a strong offensive presence. Last year, Turner was the NL batting average champion going .304. This season? His average stands at .245.
Zack Wheeler became the 13th active pitcher in Major League Baseball to start 300 games. Needing just seven innings pitched on the night to finally qualify for the pitching leaderboards and earning his place with the second-best ERA in the league, Wheeler has been a man on a mission. A mission to prove to the league that he is still one of the best pitchers in baseball being overlooked for an All-Star appearance.
Monday in Miami, that mission took a bad turn. After Lopez advanced three bases on a stolen base, Heriberto Hernández followed up with a solo shot into left field, tying the game at 2-2. Typically, if a run scores on a play due to an error, that run will be called unearned against the pitcher. Given, however, that the errors charged to Realmuto and Turner merely allowed Lopez to advance extra bases, his run was earned.
Wheeler’s woes continued in the second as he watched Griffin Conine slap a lead-off home run into right-center field to give the Marlins the lead. Javier Sanoja then walked before back-to-back extra base hits from Jakob Marsee and Lopez increased the Marlins’ lead to 5-2.
Wheeler pitched the third inning as well but then had to be removed from the game. His 3.0 IP and five earned runs on the day raised his ERA to 2.53.
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A few innings later, Harper led off the top of the sixth with a walk to reliever Cade Gibson. After moving into scoring position on a groundout from Brandon Marsh, Harper scored on a single from Bohm. Stott then followed up with a single of his own to put two runners on base for the Phillies.
Realmuto then slung a line drive to the warning track in right field, taking one hop over the fence and into the Phillies’ bullpen for a ground rule double. Stott scored on the play while Stott was moved to third.
Then with two outs, Justin Crawford slipped a single into left field, forcing a throw home from Hernández. Stott scored before the ball reached the plate. Meanwhile, the throw from Hernández went straight through the legs of catcher Joe Mack and past relief pitcher Tyler Zuber, ending up lodged beneath an advertisement panel behind home plate. The ground rule resulted in a throwing error for Hernández, advancing Crawford to second and scoring Realmuto from third, giving the Phillies a 6-5 lead on the play.
The Phillies added a spare run to their lead in the top of the eighth. Stott hit a lead-off triple into right field before scoring on a sacrifice fly from Realmuto.
As the Phillies watched the Marlins bullpen struggle, their own bullpen held up well as they had to cover for Wheeler. Kyle Backhus pitched two scoreless innings before the train of Jose Alvarado, Jonathan Bowlan, and Orion Kerkering each pitched scoreless frames. Kerkering’s appearance was his first since July 22 as he came down with the flu. The collective only allowed four baserunners over five innings to keep the Phillies in the ballgame.
Unfortunately, Jhoan Duran could not close things out.
Having allowed back-to-back singles to Marsee and Lopez to start the inning, Duran found trouble early. Lopez then stole his second base of the day to put the tying run in scoring position for the Marlins. An errant fastball traveled a bit too far in against Kyle Stowers, hitting him and loading the bases. With the winning run on base, the Marlins put in speedy Esteury Ruiz as a pinch runner for Stowers with no outs.
Hernández then hit a single into center field, scoring Marsee and Lopez to tie the game up at 7-7. With no outs, Xavier Edwards sought to move the game-winning run to third with a sacrifice bunt. Edwards beat out the throw from Bohm, instead getting a bunt single and loading the bases.
Liam Hicks then hit a grounder to Harper, who was able to beat Ruiz to the plate as the infield was positioned in. That same infield alignment cost the Phillies on the next at-bat, however, as Conine slipped a liner right over an outstretched Stott, who likely could have fielded the ball cleanly from his typical defensive position. Instead, Stott could do nothing but watch as the Marlins walked it off against the Phillies 8-7.
Jhoan Duran took his second blown save of the season, having allowed three runs on five hits.
After an embarrassing loss to a team on a league-worst losing streak, the Phillies will look to rebound on Tuesday as Aaron Nola faces off against Sandy Alcantara.
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