The rain was so heavy during the sixth inning that Derek Hill had to wipe raindrops from the brim of his helmet. Marlins pitcher John King had already asked for a new rosin bag for his slick fingers.
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Even so, the elements didn’t really faze Hill much. The Phillies outfielder, fresh off the bench, punched an RBI single up the middle for his seventh pinch-hit of the season. It helped sustain a key two-run rally in the Phillies’ 6-5 win over Miami on Monday night.
Hill, who also drew a bases-loaded walk in the eighth, said that past failures have prepared him for this role on the Phillies.
“I’ve been in this role for multiple teams and had ups and downs,” he said. “Just being able to kind of lean on the teammates here. We have an incredible amount of experience, and the coaching staff is incredible. So just being able to put all the pieces together and go out there and execute is pretty awesome to be able to come through.”
Starter Cristopher Sánchez became the first MLB pitcher to earn 16 wins this season, but it didn’t come easy. He allowed eight hits and walked three, but managed to limit the overall damage to just one run.
To do it, he had plenty of help. Trea Turner started off the first inning with a big play on a grounder from Esteury Ruiz, making the throw to first while midair. J.T. Realmuto successfully challenged a ball call on Brian Navarreto in the third inning, flipping it into a strikeout. He also combined with Luis Arraez to catch Ruiz stealing second base.
In the fifth, after Sánchez allowed a pair of singles, the Phillies came inches away from turning a triple play. Bryson Stott fielded it, stepped on third, and fired to Arraez. Alec Bohm made a long stretch at first, but Heriberto Hernández beat Arraez’s throw by a step, and the Phillies settled for a double play.
“They’re a contact-oriented team,” Sánchez said through team interpreter Diego D’Aniello. “I just went out there and took as many innings as I could and get as many scoreless innings as I could and zeros on the board.”
Through 26 starts this season, Sánchez has a 2.51 ERA. But opposing teams are also hitting .253 against him, up from .227 in 2025.
On Monday, his fastball velocity trended down a tick, though he did rear back for 96.1 mph, his hardest pitch of the night, in the sixth inning. Overall, interim manager Don Mattingly isn’t concerned about the traffic on the bases.
“I thought he was good. That was kind of what he does,” Mattingly said. “He gets some traffic and hangs in there, gets the ball on the ground.”
The Phillies offense struck first, and the rally started with the rookie. Justin Crawford tucked a double just inside the left field line to lead off the third inning, turning the lineup back over to Kyle Schwarber. He struck out on a pitch below the zone, but Turner cashed in Crawford with a single to left.
Bryce Harper drew a walk — extending his walk streak to eight consecutive games — before Arraez singled to score another. The Phillies threatened even more, loading the bases for Brandon Marsh, but he grounded into a force out to end it there.
After Sánchez escaped a few jams, a leadoff double came back to haunt him in the sixth when Griffin Conine lined a sinker into left field to get the Marlins on the board.
Both teams played through rains that drifted through during the middle innings, but it wasn’t enough to stop play. Nor did it stifle the Phillies offense. Following Hill’s RBI single in the sixth, Schwarber sent a sacrifice fly to center. It wasn’t very deep, but the throw was off line and Realmuto made a perfect slide at the plate to score another run.
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“It’s one of the times you just want to keep scoring,” Mattingly said. “You don’t want to let anybody back in, but they did. They kept coming tonight. Seemed like every time they they scored, though, we were able to answer back, which was huge.”
The Phillies caught a break in the seventh. With Jonathan Bowlan in to pitch for Sánchez, he gave up a bases-loaded hit to Javier Sanoja that was incorrectly called foul by first base umpire Shane Livensparger. The ruling was overturned by a Marlins challenge, and MLB replay officials determined that two runs scored, placing Otto Lopez on third and Sanoja on second.
Due to Lopez’s speed, it’s possible he would have also scored if the initial call had been fair. But instead, Bowlan battled back with a strikeout to preserve the Phillies’ lead at 4-3.
Marlins manager Clayton McCullough was ejected for arguing the ruling.
“It’s tough to just give them the third run when you don’t see the play, but their guy does run good. Lopez runs good,” Mattingly said. “I wouldn’t have been shocked if they gave it to him. Glad they didn’t.”
Even though the pesky Marlins had narrowed the lead, the Phillies struck back again, scoring a run without recording a hit in the seventh. Bohm was hit by a pitch, Stott reached on a fielder’s choice error, and Realmuto and Hill drew back-to-back walks to force in a run. Realmuto was initially called out on strikes but used an ABS challenge to flip it to a walk.
And when the Marlins homered off Brooks Raley in the eighth, the Phillies had one more response in them. An RBI single from Bohm gave Jhoan Duran back a two-run cushion for the ninth.
The Phillies closer needed 33 pitches the night before to close out the series finale in Minnesota, but Mattingly checked in on him after he played catch Monday afternoon. Duran told Mattingly he was good to go.
“Kind of trust him, where he’s at,” Mattingly said. “If he says he’s not feeling great today, then he’s down. Simple as that. And then you kind of plan accordingly.”
By the time he jogged out to the mound, the skies had cleared. Duran conceded one run on two hits, but induced a pop out and ground out to pick up his 27th save.
“That’s what we’re going to have to do down the stretch here,” Mattingly said. “Any good team out there, they’re going to keep playing and keep figuring out ways to win games. Sometimes we’re going to have to score, sometimes we’re going to have to pitch. We’re going to have to catch it. So it is good that we’re finding some ways.”
Tony Gwynn Jr. is a former major league outfielder and son of late Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn. Over the last two years, he got to know new Phillies second baseman Luis Arraez, whose contact skills at the plate often draw comparisons to Gwynn. Tony Jr. joined Phillies Extra to discuss his father, Arraez, and the bonds that connect them. Watch here.
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