Jordan Groshans hit his first major league homer and Bryan De La Cruz added a three-run shot and a sacrifice fly as the host Miami Marlins knocked off the Philadelphia Phillies 5-3 on Thursday night.
Groshans, playing just his third MLB game, had his family in the stands. That included Boston Red Sox hitting prospect Jaxx Groshans, who sprinted up and down the stands in celebration of his brother’s blast.
Miami (59-85), which snapped a two-game skid, got a quality start from Pablo Lopez (9-10). He allowed four hits, one walk and two runs in 6 2/3 innings. He struck out five.
Lopez wore No. 21 in honor of Roberto Clemente. Lopez, who normally wears No. 49, is Miami’s Roberto Clemente Award nominee.
Dylan Floro allowed one run in the ninth but got his fifth save of the season.
The Phillies (80-63) had their five-game winning streak snapped, getting only a solo homer by Kyle Schwarber and two RBIs from Brandon Marsh.
Schwarber leads the National League with 38 dingers. Marsh went 4-for-4, falling a homer short of the cycle.
Noah Syndergaard (9-10) took the loss, allowing six hits, three walks and four runs in six innings. It’s the most losses in his seven-year MLB career. Syndergaard entered this year 7-1 against the Marlins, but he has dropped both of his decisions to Miami this season.
The Phillies threatened in the third inning as Marsh hit a leadoff triple, but he was stranded.
Miami opened the scoring in the bottom of the third as Groshans hit his homer 376 feet down the left-field line. He smacked a 3-1 fastball clocked at 93 mph.
In the fourth, following Garrett Cooper’s ground-rule double and JJ Bleday’s walk, De La Cruz unloaded with his 434-foot homer to center.
Schwarber put the Phillies on the board with his 384-foot shot to right-center in the sixth.
In the seventh, Bryson Stott’s two-out double knocked Lopez out of the game. Reliever Steven Okert then lost an eight-pitch battle with Marsh, who hit a double past Bleday in center.
In the eighth, the Phillies had runners on first and second with no outs before that rally fizzled.
De La Cruz, who hit three balls to at least the warning track Thursday, added a sacrifice fly in the eighth, tying his career high with four RBIs.
Marsh’s two-out RBI single in the ninth cut Philadelphia’s deficit to 5-3. But Floro got Vierling on a groundout, ending the game.
The Phillies played without first baseman Rhys Hoskins, who suffered a bruised hand on a hit-by-pitch Wednesday.
–Field Level Media
